Page 27 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 10 February 2015
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We have also seen, of course, the events of late December where this minister, unbeknownst to her own Chief Minister, decided to sneak through a bunch of regulations that would have had direct benefit to the Labor Club and the pokie money that Andrew Barr, Simon Corbell and the Labor Party make out of some of the most vulnerable people in our community.
This was snuck through, and it was an attempt to try and get more money into the system for the Labor Party, but they got caught. There are two explanations to this: either the minister did not have a concept of what she was doing, she did not have a clue about the implications of her actions—that would be, at best, gross incompetence—or she knew full well what she was doing and it was a deliberate attempt to try and get more money into the Labor Club for her Labor mates and the funding of election campaigns. There are your two scenarios. Which one is it—gross incompetence or disgraceful behaviour, trying to benefit her own political party? In my view, it is the second, but, either way, there is no way we could have confidence in this minister’s behaviour.
That is not just the Liberals saying that; let us have a look at what many of the people observing this have said in our community. I will go to what Ross Solly said. Ross Solly is a very keen observer of what happens in this community, and I will read what he said on 29 January 2015.
Mr Barr: From Thailand.
MR HANSON: Andrew Barr’s having a dig at Ross Solly. Well he might, because he knows Ross Solly has said some things which are pretty damning about him and his government:
Joy Burch is incredibly lucky the Assembly is so small and available Ministerial talent so thin on the ground.
To say her time in the Assembly has been accident-prone is an understatement.
And her decision on the eve of Christmas to allow $50 notes to be used in poker machines was bizarre.
It was an early test for Andrew Barr’s Chief Ministership. He admitted he had no idea of the decision Burch had taken until he read it in the paper, which is worrying enough.
He was furious, and reportedly read her the riot act in private and then gave her a public dressing down—
and he did, didn’t he—
It’s going to be a hard year for Barr and his Government. The next budget will have to be tough, and he will need to convince the public his mob are not tired and distracted.
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