Page 6025 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 8 December 2010

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Party, the most position-free set of speeches I have heard since I have come to this chamber.

I actually moved a motion today about Tralee, yet not one of the four speakers from the Liberal Party used the word “Tralee”. It is a fairly simple word. It has only got six letters. But not one member on that side managed to use the word. I suspect it is because they just have not been able to take a position. They run for the hills on this one in a way that I think is very extraordinary.

But let us come to Mr Seselja’s specific amendment. He has gone to extraordinary lengths to avoid talking about this specifically. He says: “Actually, we have got a much better plan. We are going to go for these noise abatement zone issues.” I think it is an interesting question. I think it is an interesting question that Mr Seselja has raised and one that we would be prepared to have a talk about.

Of course, we did not get a chance to talk about it because, despite the fact that we started calling Mr Seselja’s office more than 24 hours ago, they actually declined to talk to us about the motion we wanted to move. They declined to tell us what their position was going to be. They declined to tell us whether they wanted to move an amendment. Mr Seselja walked in here tonight at a quarter to eight and finally put his amendment on the table. I guess he was embarrassed by how clearly he was missing the topic for debate.

Let us come to Mr Seselja’s specific suggestion. I am simply going to read a report from ABC online of 22 November:

The Gungahlin Community Council says it is not impressed by the ACT Opposition’s push for aircraft noise protection.

It goes on to say:

The Opposition is agitating to have Canberra’s noise abatement zones changed to include the Territory’s newest suburbs.

Then it talks about Mr Seselja’s position. I come to the key bit of the story:

But Alan Kerlin from the Gungahlin Community Council says a campaign is already well underway and he is surprised by the timing of the Opposition’s push.

Then it quotes Mr Kerlin:

“Given these commitments are already in place and already form part of the airport’s masterplan, which has been gazetted and accepted by Anthony Albanese, I really don’t understand where this stance from the Liberals is coming from,” he said.

Mr Kerlin says the group had wanted the Opposition’s support more than a year ago.

“Frankly we could have done with their support a year ago when we were campaigning on this,” he said.


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