Page 2247 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 16 August 2006
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delegation at which she was representing this place; she was attending that conference as a nominee of this place. It is because of the petty politics played out by the Liberal Party and the Greens that we now have the tension that we see in this place.
The point the government makes is that if it is the Liberal Party’s view and the Greens’ view that all these conventions are going to be thrown out the window, if it is their view that they are not going to behave with some level of decorum and accept that members do travel and do have obligations to the parliament in travelling and that those obligations should be reasonably accommodated, then so be it, Mr Speaker; so be it. Government members will insist on their rights as private members to raise matters of public importance.
Mr Speaker, I draw your attention to the standing orders. The standing orders say very clearly that on any sitting day a member may, through writing to the Speaker, request that a matter of public importance be discussed. That is what Mr Gentleman has done today. There is nothing in the standing orders that says you cannot do it. In fact, the standing orders say explicitly that you can do it, and Mr Gentleman has done it. Those opposite may dislike that and Mrs Dunne may feel there was some lovely cosy gentlemen’s agreement on that issue. I am afraid that all cosiness went out the window last week. That is the bottom line.
If the Liberal Party wants to revisit its views on this matter, the government stands ready to have those discussions and to perhaps put in place some more reasonable arrangements. But, in the absence of a lack of goodwill from those opposite and a willingness to reasonably accommodate the various demands that all members in this place face on their time and the various commitments they seek to make to perform certain duties as members, in the lack of any reasonable recognition and accommodation of that, Mrs Dunne’s expectations that we will continue to play by the rules whilst she does not is simply unacceptable and not to be accommodated.
Mr Speaker, Mr Gentleman has a right to discuss a matter of public importance and this government will insist that he be allowed to exercise that right. It is a right granted to him in the standing orders.
DR FOSKEY (Molonglo) (3.32): It is really quite disappointing to see the way today has gone—
Mr Stanhope: It is pretty disappointing to see the way Monday and Friday went, too, Dr Foskey.
DR FOSKEY: It looks like we do have to revisit that. The estimates committee was scheduled to finish and to adopt its report on Friday. I believe that one of the government members was absent on Friday and the conference that she was going to started on Monday. I do not think the government really needs to go in that direction if it is trying to score points. In relation to the matter of public—
Mr Stanhope: You cost one of your colleagues $1,000, Dr Foskey.
DR FOSKEY: In relation to the matter of public—
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