Page 3975 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 5 December 2007

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that we are now housing people who are most in need. The changes to public housing and community housing have been revolutionary—and recognised around the country. Not only that, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker: I have been invited—and I accepted—to travel to China to talk about the way we do public housing here.

Mrs Burke: Oh, really.

MR HARGREAVES: I have given a report to this place. It does not surprise me to hear the very temporary deputy leader of the opposition. I think that she will not look in her Santa bag at Christmas time, because when she does she will see the smiling face of Mr Seselja looking up out of the Santa bag at her. That is what she is going to be doing; she is going to be doing that. What does Mr Smyth want for Christmas? Everything—except that the one thing he is not going to get is credibility, because he has not got any, and neither does Mr Pratt.

Mrs Burke: And your credibility is intact, I suppose.

MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Mrs Burke.

MR HARGREAVES: Mr Pratt talks about this great big list. I thought, “Hmm.” I will put my achievements up against all of those—on a whiteboard if he likes. Mr Pratt can fill in, alongside mine, what his achievements are. I suspect that we will end up with the sort of thing you get in a Liberal Party policy document, which is something that says “please turn over” on both sides of the paper. That at least keeps Mr Pratt busy for a couple of hours.

There is not one on this item. I looked through this and I thought to myself, “Maybe he’s got a point on one or two of them and maybe I ought to say, ‘Well, look, I’m really sorry about that.’” But look at it. The taxis. Taxis are a private industry. It is a private industry.

Members interjecting—

MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!

MR HARGREAVES: Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, they are like galahs on a clothes line; they cannot help themselves.

Let us look at some of the other ones: ACTION timetables. Okay; right. Did I or did I not stand up in public—on television and radio, and in this place—and say, “With the best will in the world, we got it wrong, and this is what we are going to do about it”? Did I do that? Yes, I did. So we are doing something about it. What part of $75 million don’t these people understand?

What I have not done is deface public art. I have not done that in my life. What I have not done is mislead the community on radio, talking about petitions which do not exist. What I have not said on radio is that we do not need to have community consultation on it. Then they come into this place and accuse me of lack of consultation. That is an absolute screaming joke.


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