Page 1260 - Week 05 - Thursday, 4 June 2020
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It sounds to me like it was the engagement of post-truth politics.
Mr Barr: Madam Assistant Speaker, it would be helpful to note that in past times Speakers have taken the opportunity to reflect on a particular set of words and then come back to the Assembly and provide guidance. That may be appropriate in this context, taking into account the definition that Ms Cheyne has provided the chamber.
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER: I would like to review the Hansard because what I think Ms Stephen-Smith said and what was heard could be two different interpretations. At this stage I will review Hansard and come back to the Assembly. I am not prepared to rule on that right this second. I believe that some clarification will need to be had about at what level “untruths” were used. Ms Stephen-Smith.
MS STEPHEN-SMITH: I think Ms Cheyne really described the kind of political debate that Mr Coe is engaging in very well. It is a bit unfortunate for Mr Coe that he lacks the larger than life personality and the chutzpah to really get into this form of politics. Fundamentally, he is probably too decent a person to really engage in this kind of fact-free debate, to really engage in a debate where you just completely ignore the facts and say whatever you feel like. He has not really got the chutzpah of a Donald Trump or a Boris Johnson about him. Good luck to Mr Coe, playing this kind of politics!
We will continue to follow the health advice, as we have done the whole way through the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. I think it has served us well. That is certainly the feedback that I get from the Canberra community. And I am absolutely supporting the amendment moved by the Chief Minister.
MR COE (Yerrabi—Leader of the Opposition) (3.57): In closing, as entertaining as it was to hear the health minister get deeper and deeper into the mess that she created—she may talk about post-truth—what was not post-truth was when I had someone call me up on my mobile in tears a week after I visited, contemplating that he was about to end his life because his business was gone. His business of years and years and years was gone. That was real. They may talk about post-truth; they may talk about a straw man argument. I am talking about people’s lives here.
Nine thousand people are unemployed; thousands are underemployed. People are losing their houses left, right and centre and all this government can do is use workshopped focus group lines to try and defend the indefensible. It is bad. And they are wrong. Minister Stephen-Smith was wrong. She is wrong now and I am sure she will be wrong again when she uses expressions like “post-truth politics” to try and dodge dealing with the real issues here.
I think it is pretty damning, I think it is disrespectful to the thousands of people that are doing it tough in this city right now, to be dismissed, and to say that people who are in pubs, restaurants, cafes and so many other businesses should just put up with itis absolutely wrong. It is reprehensible. The Canberra Liberals will keep standing up for all these people. We will stand up for the people that they employ. We will stand up for Canberra families. We will stand up for the people that this Labor Party has
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