Page 3528 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 18 August 2010

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Mr Hargreaves: Put your hands up if you have been kicked out by the Marist Brothers.

MR HANSON: Do you think it is a joke? Do you think that the struggling families out there in Belconnen and in Tuggeranong who are trying to meet private health insurance fees that they have to pay, who are trying to pay for their kids to attend the local Catholic school, who have power bills that are coming in that are too big, are a joke? These people look at these Greens’ policies, which are about attacks on families, that are about taking money away from independent schools, that are about taking away their ability to pay for private health insurance because everything has to be in the public system, and they are rightly frightened about the cost pressures and the agenda of the Greens.

These Greens policies are dangerous for Canberra families and it is frightening to me that they may—after this federal election—have the balance of power in the federal Senate. But let us not make any pretence that Lin Hatfield Dodds, the Greens candidate, is a great advocate for Canberra, that what she is focused on is Canberra families out in the suburbs. She is not. This is about trying to get Bob Brown power in the Senate. It would be reckless if Canberrans found themselves in a position where they did not have a single representative in either the House of Representatives or the Senate from one of the two major parties in this country.

Mr Barr: You really are seriously worried he is going to lose on Saturday, aren’t you? You are seriously worried.

MR HANSON: The Liberal Party will either form government or be in opposition. I am confident that the good people of Canberra will see through—

Mr Barr: What is all this then, if you are not worried?

MR HANSON: Can you just stop the clocks please, Madam Assistant Speaker? I have been continually brought to order by you and by other Speakers in this place when facing interjections. Mr Barr has been sitting there throughout the bulk of this speech, interjecting on a continual basis, and you have just been nodding and smiling at him. Why is it, Madam Assistant Speaker—and I asked you to stop the clocks and you will not——that when I interject or when others interject, you warn—

Mr Seselja: Could you stop the clocks, Madam Assistant Speaker. Could I request that you stop the clocks while a point of order is taken?

MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ms Le Couteur): Do you want to make a point of order, Mr Hanson?

Mr Seselja: Yes, he is making his point of order.

MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER: Yes, he is on a point of order.

MR HANSON: I do not understand, Madam Assistant Speaker, why continually when Mr Barr is interjecting, as he has done through the bulk of my speech, you are


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