Page 515 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 8 March 2011
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Election promises
Discussion of matter of public importance
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Mrs Dunne): Mr Speaker has received letters from Ms Bresnan, Mr Coe, Mr Doszpot, Mrs Dunne, Mr Hanson, Ms Hunter, Ms Le Couteur, Mr Seselja and Mr Smyth proposing that matters of public importance be submitted to the Assembly. In accordance with standing order 79, Mr Speaker has determined that the matter proposed by Mr Doszpot be submitted to the Assembly, namely:
The importance of governments keeping election promises.
MR DOSZPOT (Brindabella) (3.25): I would like to thank the Speaker for the opportunity to speak on this matter of public importance today, the importance of governments keeping election promises. In light of the rich mentioning of broken promises pointed at various Labor governments recently, this MPI is timely and wanting of further discussion.
But allow me to ease into this topic with a literary reference. In 1895, a brand new Oscar Wilde play was performed at St James Theatre in London in which the main characters in this production maintained fictitious personae so that they might escape their burdensome obligations. And although we are not here today to debate the merits of or comment on the virtues of 19th century Victorian society, today’s MPI does highlight the importance of being earnest.
For our ACT Labor colleague across the chamber, who perhaps need a more literal and political prefix to what I have to say today, allow me to quote your federal Labor leader:
There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead.
We have heard this over and over again:
There will be no carbon tax under the government I lead.
I thought, just for a moment during question time, Ms Gallagher was going to launch into some similar historic statement during that question time when I think Mr Seselja asked about the government’s support of the federal government carbon tax policy. And I could for a moment see the blink in her eyes, “Will I? Won’t I? What will Jon say?” But she did not say anything. Suffice it to say that everyone in Australia knows who uttered these now memorable words and that promise that is being broken:
There will be no carbon tax under the government that I lead.
We in the ACT are not immune to Labor’s broken promises at the local level, with the Greens allowing this to happen so long as it fits their agenda—another broken promise by the Greens who promised, as part of their election platform, that they would be the third party insurers for the community. That election promise has been
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