Page 1704 - Week 05 - Thursday, 8 May 2008
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MR HARGREAVES: Mr Smyth has not heard the argument because I have not put it yet. I wonder about the motives of those folks opposite. I know the motives of Mr Mulcahy, and I really respect them. With respect to Dr Foskey, I disagree with what she is saying but she is putting exactly the same argument that Ms Tucker put before her, and which I would expect the Greens to put after Dr Foskey has moved on. I would expect that. However, I wonder about those opposite. I recall that when we first came into this place and joined you here, Mr Speaker, in 1998, we were treated to the Carnell government and then later the Humphries government. It was a minority government. These folks opposite are saying how wonderful minority government is, and so too is Dr Foskey. But let me remind you what that minority government was all about.
Dr Foskey: It isn’t about minority government.
MR HARGREAVES: Yes, it is, because it is about the 12 per cent that one member can bring to this place in proportional representation, and one person held an entire government to ransom. Mr Michael Moore in fact put his 40 points down. Mr Smyth and Mr Stefaniak were members of that cabinet. Can somebody explain to me how democratic it can be when one person with 12 per cent of the entire vote can hold to ransom the cabinet that these guys sat in?
MR SPEAKER: Are you going to link that to clause 14?
MR HARGREAVES: I can do it, but I have to make this point: we are talking about people’s groupings. These folks here reckon they know Hare-Clark really well. The fact is that Hare-Clark is also about recognition and credibility.
Mr Smyth: I thought it was about equal votes for all.
MR HARGREAVES: Mr Smyth is an interjector par excellence, but he makes absolutely no sense to me. The fact is that the groupings are in like groups. That is why we band together as parties—because we have like views. And we have the courage to go out and tell the public that we belong to this organisation. In that sense I pay credit to the Liberal Party for doing it, and to the Greens, because they are labelled—although, of course, with the Liberal Party, they toss somebody out every time they come into this place. In every single term that I have been in this place, and there have been three of them, they have tossed one of their members onto the crossbench. It is no wonder they like doing it. If we wait for long enough, the whole crossbench will be the Liberal Party; they will just move. We are having a bit of a raffle in my office about which member of the incoming Liberal government will be on the crossbench before the end of that term.
Mr Smyth: On a point of order, Mr Speaker: we always find Mr Hargreaves amusing the later the night goes, but can you ask him to come back to the subject.
MR HARGREAVES: Look, you just can’t cop it; you can’t cop it, can you?
MR SPEAKER: Order, Mr Hargreaves!
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