Page 4897 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 11 November 2009
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MR SPEAKER: Mrs Dunne, I think it would be fair to say that Mr Seselja interjected considerably during Mr Stanhope’s contribution. If I am to be consistent, whilst I do not condone the Chief Minister’s actions, some consistency is required on my part.
Mrs Dunne: But he did not exercise forbearance.
MR SPEAKER: Mr Seselja, you have the floor.
MR SESELJA: Thank you, Mr Speaker. The Chief Minister has confirmed that he is ignorant, not dishonest. This is what we see. This is the level of debate that he subjects this place to. He manufactures issues. He manufactures a straw man and then has an argument with it. The Chief Minister has put his rambling contribution on the record today in the chamber. He has been out of control, as Mrs Dunne has pointed out. From question time onwards, he has been unable to control himself and the words that have been coming out of his mouth have not been making sense.
But he has put forward a new policy from the ACT government. The new policy is that they are against competitive and transparent processes. They are against competitive and transparent processes in whatever form. Presumably they will only now deal with direct grants to one individual supermarket with no other process looking at any competition in the supermarket sector. That is the policy that has been put forward by the Chief Minister in his arguments. There is no other way of looking at it. He says that if you dare to have an open and transparent process, you will be handing it to Woolies or Coles.
That is the Chief Minister’s position. It is a ridiculous position, Mr Speaker. It demonstrates that when he cannot read his notes and he has to make it up as he goes along, he comes up with these ridiculous conclusions—these rambling conclusions—which any reasonable observer would conclude do not make any sense. They are not good policy and they are ridiculous. We have been subjected to that, unfortunately, from the Chief Minister today.
We have seen it on a number of issues but most importantly at the moment we have seen a new policy from this government that they are against competitive and transparent processes of any form—of any form. They are only for uncompetitive, closed, hidden processes that are not open or transparent.
Mr Coe: New South Wales Labor.
MR SESELJA: Well, it is; it is a bit like New South Wales Labor. But that is what the Chief Minister has said today, and that will no doubt cause significant concern. It will heighten concern in the community about some of these processes. We want to see competition.
You do not increase competition by excluding a whole group—ie, small independent retailers based here in the ACT. That does not increase competition. You do not increase competition by outright rejecting competitive and transparent processes in relation to supermarket policy here in the ACT. That is the new policy of the ACT government as enunciated by the Chief Minister here in the chamber today.
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