Page 2123 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 15 August 2006
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and they got ahead of themselves. They have scrabbled together a motion that is wrong and they want the community to take it seriously.
The community is not taking it seriously. This motion is a fantastic example of how irrelevant the opposition is to the ACT community. After a winter recess, we are going to spend the entire morning session on a political stunt by the Liberal Party. We are not going to be discussing legislation. We are not going to be hearing back from the estimates committee. We are not going to be hearing back from the scrutiny of bills committee. We are not going to get to the radiation legislation or the Revenue Legislation Amendment Bill. We cannot have a discussion about amendments to that because the Liberal Party brings an incorrect motion to the Assembly. It is an absolute joke and no-one will take it seriously.
When one talks to anyone in the community, they say, “Where is the opposition? Where is it? Where are its ideas and where are its plans for the future? We never hear anything from it.” This is why: it is not discussing any of the issues that the Canberra community wants it to discuss. It got all excited at the thought that the government is performing very well and is polling very well. Mr Mulcahy does his polling. It nearly kills him, does it not, to see the results of his colleagues. It is an embarrassment. The government is travelling well. Two ministers performing extremely well, and that is the issue here. Members opposite just cannot stand the fact that they are a hopeless opposition and the government is getting on with the job.
So what do they do? They move an incorrect motion, one that is factually incorrect, and waste the Assembly’s time. That is the opposition’s response. It has no understanding of what went on at the ALP conference. That is clear from the motion that has been moved. I take my job as a minister very seriously. I take my job as an MLA very seriously. I work very hard for my community and it is hard to sit here and listen to the rubbish that is coming out of the mouths of members opposite about my performance and my integrity. It is difficult to sit here and listen to that. I reject it completely. I know from my talking in the community that they reject it completely as well, because we are out and about. This government is out and about talking with the community, engaging in debates, putting forward ideas for the future.
We are not scared to have those debates. They are difficult debates and they are difficult debates within out party as well, but we have had those debates and we will continue to progress this agenda. We continue to engage in the discussions about the education changes. I commend Minister Barr on the hard work that he does, because he does not have an easy job leading this work, leading the debate and asking for the community to engage, to come up with ideas, to come up with ways to provide the best education system we can for our children into the future. He is doing a fantastic job and the government supports him completely.
As I have said, the thing that seems to upset the Liberals so much, the reason they want to waste the Assembly’s time—and they feign seriousness of it at times, although we have had some hilarity during the motion today—is that they cannot stand that the government are performing so well, that we are a unified party and that we present ideas to the community. No wonder Mr Mulcahy understands his factions so well. He heads one of many within his group over there. For once they can try to get the spotlight of factional unrest off them.
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