Page 4341 - Week 10 - Thursday, 22 September 2011
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
assuming that it was that advice particularly that prompted you to establish the select committee into privileges.
You need to know a couple of things here, Mr Speaker. I said that was the advice of the majority of the committee. I rose in this place to indicate that I was the minority voice in that committee. Therefore, the two key members of the committee who put that argument were the chair and Mr Smyth. So Mr Smyth was substantial in that advice to you.
Furthermore—and I raised this in the committee—I found it somewhat strange that a member of a committee, in an action outside that committee, wrote to the Speaker seeking precedence to be awarded, and then went back into that committee and took part in the decision about and construction of the response from the committee to the Speaker about that. That member, in fact, was acting in contempt of proper process, and I raised that in the committee. The most vocal person in that committee was Mr Smyth. He quite clearly has two rules—one for himself and one for the rest of us.
Mr Smyth challenged this side of the house to quote from his press release. Well, I will do two things: one is to quote from it—and I will do that in a minute—and the other is to say that the Leader of the Opposition is complicit in this. This press release was issued into the ether with Zed Seselja’s—
Mr Seselja: Do you want to move a censure of me, too, John?
MR HARGREAVES: We will give it some serious consideration.
Mr Seselja: Bring it on.
MR HARGREAVES: Bring it on? I am quaking. I am dreadfully frightened.
Members interjecting—
MR SPEAKER: Order, members! Others will have a chance in a moment.
MR HARGREAVES: Mr Seselja cannot have it both ways. It was his letterhead—
Mr Seselja: On a point of order, Mr Speaker, Mr Hargreaves is making an allegation that there is some sort of complicity. This motion has no substance, but it contains nothing against me, so he should withdraw that. We can get onto him and deal with him in a minute, but he cannot just make whatever allegations he feels like because it is a censure motion.
MR SPEAKER: Yes, the point of order is upheld. The censure motion is not against Mr Seselja, so let us stick to the issues around Mr Smyth.
MR HARGREAVES: Thank you very much, Mr Speaker, I readily accept your ruling. I will quote from the media release from Mr Smyth published on the internet, and I will quote the first line after the title:
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video