Page 3359 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 19 October 2022
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Ms Berry: Point of order: referring to the Chief Minister of the ACT government as pathetic, and also his references to the Chief Minister before that, is unparliamentary, and I seek your advice.
MR PARTON: Which part?
Ms Berry: Protection racket.
Mr Barr: It might be crossing a line.
MR ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Mr Cain): Mr Parton, do you—
MR PARTON: I withdraw.
MR ASSISTANT SPEAKER: Thank you.
MR PARTON: There was a promise that was made that has been broken. I understand that on the Labor side of politics broken promises are a dime a dozen. But the rest of the community take that stuff quite seriously. As embarrassing as it may be for ACT Labor, they should be bold enough to condemn their own and call out the finance minister for failing to fulfil a very clear promise.
If the federal Liberals were in power this would have been pile-on. Imagine if the federal Liberals were in power and Senator Seselja had promised to waive the $100 million housing debt and then backtracked on that in four months. Mr Barr would have brought a burning effigy of Zed into the chamber, and he would have been crash tackled by Lyndell and Jim! They would not have known what to do. That is what would have happened if the tables were reversed. But it has turned into a sort of “As you were; there is nothing to see here; please move along motion”.
I am pleased to hear that Mr Barr is disappointed that there will not be a line item in the federal budget waiving that debt. It is one of the things that everyone in this chamber agrees on. That is good. It does not happen very often. We are all disappointed. It is embarrassing and it is shameful, based on what has been said.
Mr Barr also tells me that great things are coming from the feds in this space, but
(a) where are they; (b) when will they be coming; and (c) how much of it will be for the ACT? I think Mr Barr should let his federal colleagues know that, if there is not a fair share of big picture housing funding that comes to the ACT, we have got this pesky Parton bloke here that will call it out—and he will call it out loudly and clearly.
Mr Barr: I am not sure that is my strongest argument!
MR PARTON: Let them know that if they do not deliver, the ACT opposition will shine a very bright light on it. And you can trust that, if it occurs, I will shine a bright light on it. I love it that in the housing space I do not have to get any motions passed to actually effect outcomes! The heat is on and the heat will continue to be on.
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