Page 3549 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 18 August 2010
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Again, my comments this morning in relation to the Greens’ policy were on the basis that I accepted what Lin Hatfield Dodds and Senator Brown had said last week, that they no longer held the position that was outlined on their website in March.
Mr Smyth: He did not disavow it today.
MR BARR: That is a problem, if he did not disavow it today. That is a problem, because it would appear he will be wanting to walk both sides of the street on this matter. And that is concerning. I have heard Mr Rattenbury say how important it is to have clarity on policy, and certainly I am aware, as minister, how accountable I am for every word I say. There is no prospect at all for me or the Labor Party to try to walk both sides of the street on any issue. There is always someone, be it the Greens or the Liberal Party, trying to hold us to account on everything we say. To be fair to the Liberal opposition and the alternative government, we are certainly applying that level of scrutiny to them. For a party that holds a significant number of seats in this place and is, if we are led to believe, within 2,000 votes in the closest Senate contest in the country—if all this is to be believed—clarity on this matter is important.
I think now is the opportunity for the Greens to once and for all put this issue to bed, to either come in here and say, “No, what is on our website from March is our position,” or come in and say, “No, what Lin Hatfield Dodds and Bob Brown said last week is our position.” One or the other, let us know and then we can have an informed vote on both the amendment and the motion. I think that is the only reasonable position that this Assembly can take this afternoon.
MR COE (Ginninderra) (4.46): I too share the concerns of the opposition—we are quite genuinely scared that the role about the Greens could play in Australian politics post Saturday, or, perhaps more accurately, post July 1 next year, when most of the senators that get elected on Saturday, will come into the chamber.
The Greens are a threat to Canberra’s families. They are a threat to the future of Canberra and they are a threat to the overall prosperity of our nation. I think what makes this particularly interesting is the fact that it is usually the Greens that are out and about in the media or in this place or in other chambers across the country talking about morals, talking about integrity, talking about hypocrisy and trying to stamp it out, yet it is the Greens of late that have demonstrated the hypocritical side to their politics and the hypocritical side to their campaign.
The classic case over just the last few days is of course the four-wheel drive issue. I have been criticised in this chamber for the car that I drive, and my colleagues on this side of the chamber have also been criticised, and I know that, privately, those opposite and the Greens have also criticised us as well. You have a situation whereby people like myself get a sticker slapped on the back of their car near the Legislative Assembly saying, “I am driving a climate killer,” yet here we have a Greens candidate and a Greens senator-to-be driving a four-wheel drive V8 Landcruiser.
Is that not hypocrisy? I wonder whether she drove the four-wheel drive when she went to the Climate Crusaders Walk Against Warming—or should it be the Climate
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