Page 623 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 9 March 2011
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Order of business
Motion (by Mr Hargreaves) proposed:
That notice No 2, Private Members’ business, relating to organ and tissue donation, be called on forthwith.
MR SESELJA (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition) (3.41): This is fast becoming a joke this afternoon, Madam Assistant Speaker. What we have just had is Mr Hargreaves not ready to go and, because he was not ready to go, pushing his motion back. Then we have had the suppression of debate by the Labor Party and the Greens on Mr Smyth’s bill—a bill that has been on the notice paper and which everyone had warning that we were going to debate. With no discussion the Labor Party and the Greens have first decided to put off Mr Hargreaves’s motion because he was not ready, because he was chatting at the end of the debate on the last motion and he did not go and get his stuff. Then we have had the debate on Mr Smyth’s bill shut down because the Greens and the Labor Party do not want to vote on it—
Mr Stanhope interjecting—
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Mrs Dunne): You do not have the call, Mr Stanhope; be quiet.
MR SESELJA: and now that Mr Hargreaves has managed to get his papers from upstairs, we should bring on his motion.
Ms Bresnan: On a point of order. Madam Assistant Speaker, I would actually like to know under what standing order Mr Seselja is making this statement.
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER: We are debating whether the motion should be brought on. The question is whether the motion should be brought on.
MR SESELJA: Again, this is how they are managing the Assembly now between them. There is no courtesy. There is not even an attempt to know what is going on. There is no attempt to communicate with the Liberal Party about what is going on. We are at the whim now of whether Mr Hargreaves happens to be ready for a debate at any given time. Having yielded on that, we are now told that he does want to bring it on because they now do not want to debate Mr Smyth’s bill.
This is becoming a farce, and we have had absolutely no courtesy. If the Labor Party and the Greens alliance now is such that they are going to manage the Assembly in this way then it will become virtually unworkable. It will very quickly become virtually unworkable, because much of what goes on in here relies on some goodwill in order for it to function.
The goodwill has not been shown by the Labor Party and it has not been shown by the Greens today. Given that, it is going to become very difficult for this place to function. I am sure that the Labor Party and the Greens will find that the goodwill will not be
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