Page 3273 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 10 November 2021
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Mr Hanson understands that senators, like MLAs, can correct public reporting through the chamber. This is an important tool, particularly given the obligations placed on elected officials to be truthful in the chamber. If the public record is so incorrect, why has Senator Seselja not used the Senate chamber to correct the record? If there was an error in the motion moved in this place, why did those opposite not raise it at the time?
This motion is nothing more than Senator Seselja’s showcasing his dominance over the Canberra Liberals in this place. This week demonstrates that Senator Seselja’s zombie policies never went away. Yesterday, we had Mr Parton and Mr Cain in this place once again endorsing bulldozing Kowen Forest and west Murrumbidgee. This is Zed’s policy. In question time today Mrs Jones led efforts to undermine Canberra’s light rail, and Mr Parton will be up again this afternoon to back that up. They are following Senator Seselja’s tracks, and this just confirms that those opposite never have, and never will, support light rail.
Tomorrow, Ms Castley will move a motion relating to parking, no doubt trying to find a home for all those Audis that Zed’s apprentice was going to buy for her constituents in Yerrabi. Mr Hanson’s motion is a signal to the conservative base that the Canberra Liberals have not changed their position on territory rights—that, like Zed, they oppose euthanasia. This is just the start of the greatest hits of the conservative Canberra Liberals, with more to come in the future. Of course, this motion is Senator Seselja’s reminder to everyone that the Canberra Liberals remain staunchly conservative and probably the most right-wing Liberal party in the country.
This is what this motion is about; it is a reminder that the right-wing conservative Liberals are proudly still in this chamber. It is a demonstration that conservative Canberra Liberals are in the majority. Add those members I have mentioned and you will get more than 50 per cent of those opposite. Let the charade be over. Nothing has changed in the Canberra Liberals. Zed has always been in charge, and the Canberra Liberals remain proudly conservative.
MR HANSON (Murrumbidgee) (4.13), in reply: I must say I am disappointed, but perhaps not surprised, by the new standard that has been set by the Labor Party and the Greens in this place. That is, that you can come in here, speak falsehoods and mislead, and then get the Speaker to write to all federal members of parliament with matters that are inaccurate and misleading. Then, when you get caught out on it—as the government has, in this case, in categorical statements—you can come into this place and say, “It’s all about semantics,” “It’s all a right-wing conspiracy,” or you say, “You should have corrected the report because I spoke to the RiotACT, and you didn’t then complain about it.”
The defence of this mislead from members opposite is not only weak but, in Mr Gentleman’s case, does not even try to defend the substance of the issue. He just tries to make baseless political point-scoring statements. Ms Cheyne’s point seems to be mostly about saying, “These statements were made elsewhere, and I said stuff on the RiotACT and nobody complained; therefore, how is it a problem that I said something in here?” And for Mr Rattenbury it seems to be, “It was not quite what was said, but it’s the vibe; it was close to what we meant,” and so on.
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