Page 2268 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 16 June 2009
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MR SPEAKER: Order, Mr Corbell, one moment. Mr Corbell—
MR CORBELL: Mr Smyth, I am not moving to suspend standing orders.
Mr Smyth: Yes, you are.
MR CORBELL: No, I am not.
MR SPEAKER: Resume your seat, Mr Corbell.
MR CORBELL: I am not moving to suspend standing orders, Mr Speaker.
MR SPEAKER: Yes. Mr Smyth, I presume your point of order is around the fact that Mr Corbell is not speaking to the motion, which is to dissent from my ruling and not the substance of the matter. We will come to the substance of the matter potentially in due course.
MR CORBELL: I will, Mr Speaker. If it is not within the forms of this place for a member of this place to object to the fact that you are giving precedence to a matter that we on this side of the place do not believe warrants any precedence whatsoever, then I do not know how your authority can be upheld in this place, Mr Speaker.
Mr Speaker, your ruling is incorrect. It is incorrect for me, for the government, to not be able to say to you that this matter should not be given precedence—and then for you to say that I can’t object in any way to that decision. You are a servant of this place, Mr Speaker, not the other way around. Mr Speaker, all of this is being driven by an agenda on the part of the Liberal Party and the Greens in this place to propose a select committee on privileges to blacken the name of a minister and a senior public servant for no reason whatsoever. Mr Hanson made an allegation about senior public servants, Mr Speaker.
Mrs Dunne: Relevance, Mr Speaker.
MR SPEAKER: Order, Mr Corbell!
Mrs Dunne: Again, Mr Speaker, the leader of the house is prosecuting the substantive issue of contempt. He should be talking about why he wants to dissent from your ruling, which is what he thinks he wants to do.
MR CORBELL: Indeed, Mr Speaker, it is important that the matter is placed in the context of the political manoeuvrings that are occurring in this place this morning. The manoeuvrings that are occurring in this place this morning are a deliberate agenda, a plan, a plot, hatched by the Liberal Party and the Greens, to blacken the name of the chief executive of the department of health and his department, Mr Speaker—
MR SPEAKER: Order, Mr Corbell!
MR CORBELL: all for purely political purposes.
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