Page 127 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 11 February 2015
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Belconnen. Attacking those ministers in the same motion in a most disgusting way is probably not going to help a bipartisan approach to support the people of Belconnen. If you want a political fight on this and on border protection, we will give you one, but let us not descend to that. I counsel Dr Bourke and other members of the Labor Party that if you want a bipartisan approach to this, we are offering you one. We are giving you one.
Mrs Dunne has already written to the department; I have already spoken to the minister’s office; Senator Seselja has already spoken to the relevant minister. If Dr Bourke wants to smear the minister and thinks that will help the cause of the people of Belconnen, if he genuinely thinks attacking Scott Morrison and attacking Peter Dutton is going to help them make a favourable decision for the people of Belconnen, and if Andrew Barr thinks attacking the federal minister is going to help him make a favourable decision, they are wrong. It is not. Tone down your rhetoric. Let us have a bipartisan approach; let us put the people of Belconnen first. Dr Bourke needs to wind back the vitriol, wind back the hate, wind back the class warfare, wind back the attempt to bring border protection into this debate and focus on the people of Belconnen.
I support Mrs Dunne’s amendments. They are good amendments. They speak to the issue. They support Canberra. They support the people of Belconnen. Let us proceed with this debate in a bipartisan fashion and keep the class warfare, the hate and the attack on the federal Liberal government out of this. If that is where this debate goes, it will not help the people of Belconnen.
MR BARR (Molonglo—Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Urban Renewal and Minister for Tourism and Events) (10.55): I am pleased we now have on the record the new approach from the Liberal opposition—if you want to get an outcome you should never attack a minister. Presumably all private members’ motions from this point on will adhere to this new standard. If we are genuinely seeking to get an outcome for our constituents—this is the new mantra from the Leader of the Opposition—motions attacking ministers are ineffective. That is your entire reason for being in this chamber. Over the entire time you have been a member in this place, Mr Hanson, everything you have ever done has been about personally attacking ministers. That is your reason for being. This is why you turn up for work every day, Mr Hanson. In this new order—
Mrs Dunne: Point of order, Madam Assistant Speaker. I ask you to ask the Chief Minister to comply with standing order 42 and address the chair and not the opposition.
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ms Lawder): Thank you, Mrs Dunne. Mr Barr, please address your remarks through the chair.
MR BARR: If the Leader of the Opposition is to be taken seriously in this new approach to outcome-driven motions on private members’ day, I look forward to all future motions being amended to reflect this approach.
On the substance of the issue, I thank Dr Bourke for raising this matter. This has certainly been of concern to Belconnen businesses and the broader Belconnen
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