Page 689 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 20 March 2018
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integrity in this place, if we are actually going to have Mr Barr’s private views reflected in his public life, are we going to see all support for seniors chucked out of the window? They have already started on the concessions. Are we going to see all the other benefits or thankyous that we give to seniors taken away? Obviously, Mr Barr does not think they are worthwhile. Obviously, Mr Barr does not think that that cohort is worthy of this government’s or this Assembly’s time.
Mr Gentleman tried to, in effect, say that this is a non-issue; it is a stunt. Anybody who has tuned in to media in the past week would suggest that it is not a non-issue. Anybody who has read letters to the editor, anybody who has looked at social media and anybody who has heard talkback radio, be it here or elsewhere, would know that this is not just about flying under the radar and something being concocted by the Liberals. This has struck a nerve with thousands of Canberrans.
The reality is that the Assembly does not really cut through into most people’s lives. The debates we have here—the motions, the bills, the publications—often have a narrow audience. People are busy living their lives. But this issue has had cut through. It has had cut through like very few issues do. The reason it has cut through is that it has struck a nerve. It has struck a nerve with Canberrans that what the Chief Minister said actually encapsulates the Chief Minister they know—a Chief Minister who is increasingly becoming arrogant, a government that is distancing itself from mainstream Canberrans and a government that is not seeking to represent the people who pay the bills.
It is significant. That is why I am a little bit surprised by the approach that the Chief Minister took, as well as by the fact that they would want to lengthen this debate by having numerous other speakers give an equally pathetic “sorry but not sorry”. In actual fact they sort of gave a half-defence of the comments. They gave a defence of reasons why you might not like journalists, why you might sort of hate journalists, or why it is fair to have a go at seniors.
It shows that the coalition between Labor and the Greens is not actually about bettering Canberra; it is about self-propulsion. It is about themselves. It is about their hunger and determination to hold on to power. So when you have that motivation on top of the first minister saying that they hate journalists, that is a pretty bad cocktail. That is a cocktail that, in other jurisdictions, in other countries, has gone very bad, very quickly.
That is why press freedom is important. That is why the Canberra Liberals will always stand up for media freedom in Australia and in Canberra. That is why it is so important that we have the Canberra Times operating in the ACT. And we should not dance on their grave should that paper fall away in a few years, as the Chief Minister hopes.
To paraphrase what Chris Uhlmann said, is his government actually going to get any better if there is not scrutiny? Is his government actually going to get better if the Canberra Times, the ABC or the radio stations do not report on it? It is quite the opposite.
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