Page 133 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 16 February 2011
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find it pretty special that here we have Ms Bresnan going through, point by point, this motion defending Ms Gallagher. Not once was she critical. Not once did she say, “Perhaps that is partly true.” Not once did she say, “You know what? Ms Gallagher needs to step up.”
At what point do the people of Brindabella get value for money for their crossbench member in Ms Bresnan? What did Ms Bresnan add to this debate when it comes to the future of health? Instead, we saw an extraordinary preoccupation with Mr Hanson. It is probably verging on an obsession for her. We had all these conspiracy theories about what Mr Hanson is doing or not doing. We had all these conspiracy theories about Mr Hanson getting involved in everything under the sun. At some point we would like the crossbench to serve as a crossbench.
It may well be that the Greens are giving Ms Gallagher more loyalty than her own party members in the Labor Party are giving her, but the fact is that at some point Ms Bresnan needs to contribute to the debate something other than blind defence for this government.
Obviously over the summer break there has been some powwow between Ms Bresnan and Ms Gallagher—or perhaps Labor and the Greens, or at least factions within the Labor Party and the Greens—to say, “Give me some support, because at the moment I am running on empty in my own cabinet or my own caucus.” We all know that the trouble up on level 2 is absolutely rife. We know that the officers are not communicating; we know that within each office there are problems. We know that there are all sorts of factional issues. Yet we come in here on any given—
Ms Gallagher: Point of order, Mr Assistant Speaker.
MR COE: She has not got the call quite yet, so I will continue. The level 2 problems are absolutely extraordinary. In fact, Mr Hargreaves—
MR ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Mr Hargreaves): Mr Coe, please resume your seat. Minister, you have a point of order?
Ms Gallagher: Thank you, Mr Assistant Speaker. We are three minutes in and Mr Coe has not made it to the subject of the motion today. He is rambling on around his concerns with the Greens. I think he needs to be relevant to the motion before the Assembly.
Mr Hanson: On the point of order, Mr Assistant Speaker, I would just point out that Mr Stanhope, in his speech, spent the first 6½ minutes not referring to the motion, but referring to the Liberal Party’s fictional activities throughout the break. If you had held Mr Stanhope to account, it would be fine to then hold Mr Coe to account, but if you want to apply a consistent measure, then I think that Mr Coe is quite within the standing orders.
MR ASSISTANT SPEAKER: Thank you very much, Mr Hanson. Clearly you were too preoccupied with making your speech to notice that I was not in the chamber, so I was not able to do anything about what Mr Stanhope may or may not have done. I ask
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