Page 1726 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 1 April 2009
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Ms Gallagher: Oh, it’s not. What—you’re going to be in a lockup from 10 o’clock on budget day, are you, Brendan?
MR SMYTH: I am not asking to be in a lockup, Madam Treasurer. I am not asking—
Ms Gallagher: Well, that is the point, yes.
MR SMYTH: Well, you could offer it, and we might consider it.
Ms Gallagher: I will happily lock you up on the morning of budget day and—
MR SMYTH: We could consider it.
Ms Gallagher: further, I will forget to let you out.
MR SMYTH: All right. If you are offering the lockup, we might take you up on that offer, but I do not think we will get offered a lockup, Mr Speaker. I do not think that courtesy will be accorded to us. But it does go to the accuracy of what the Treasurer says and whether or not you can take her at her word.
The reality is that oppositions do get copies of the budget well in advance of the appropriation bill being tabled, in the parliament about a kilometre and a half away.
Ms Gallagher: Yes, in a lockup, Brendan, which is not what you want; you want them handed to you and then—
MR SMYTH: Well, you did not say this. You did not say that. The federal Labor Party used to get that courtesy. The Liberal Party were accorded that courtesy by Mr Swan last year. Perhaps it is something we need to talk about.
Ms Gallagher: You didn’t ask for a lockup.
MR SMYTH: There we go: “You didn’t ask for it. We’ve got all the cards and you’ve got to guess the answer.”
Ms Gallagher: I’m going on your motion, Mr Smyth.
MR SMYTH: And this is the problem: it is a self-fulfilling prophecy that sits over there on the government bench. All we are simply saying is that perhaps it is time that the courtesy was extended. I am quite happy if somebody wants to put it in a standing order. If we can agree on a format that people would accept, I am happy for a standing order to cover this. But it is reasonable to expect that members of the opposition, as they previously had in this place, have this facility, so that people can do their job in a reasonable fashion. It was the tradition of this place for a long time. But it is one of the traditions that unfortunately died under the Stanhope-Gallagher majority government. It was just killed stone dead—all the courtesy gone, all the consideration gone, all the tradition gone.
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