Page 5934 - Week 14 - Thursday, 8 December 2011
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The money grabbing which is noted by Mrs Dunne I think is a fairly offensive claim to be making. I have noted why it is important that we have the whips as members. Even if it had anything to do with remuneration, it is highly unlikely that if anything did come I would actually benefit from it in this term of the Assembly. It will be people in future Assemblies who will benefit from it. It will not be me that benefits from it and it is pretty offensive to be claiming that I will.
I could equally argue that Mr Hanson is the party whip and I am not quite sure what he actually does as the whip. I note that Mr Hargreaves does most of the work in organising the pairs. It is typical that the whip sits on the administration and procedure committee. I could equally argue that Mr Hanson is getting a nice level of pay for not doing too much. Are those the sorts of claims we are going to start making? It is pretty offensive to be saying we are doing this for some monetary outcome. It is entirely unlikely that I would get it.
I think the opposition know why this is happening. We have had some difficulty in terms of how the administration and procedures committee operates. That is what this is about. It has been typical that the whips sit on the committee. I think it is important that we formalise that so that it actually means we know who the members of that committee are and that if there is a different crossbench make-up somebody is representing those crossbench members. As I understand it, in past Assemblies it has been the case that someone has been nominated to sit on that committee and act as a representative for crossbench members. That is the way it will operate. It means that we can have the smoothest possible operation of the administration and procedure committee. I commend Mr Hargreaves for bringing this motion on today.
MR SESELJA (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition) (11.44): Mr Speaker, I would just put it out there that we would be interested in your views, as the chair of the admin and procedure committee, on this particular issue. I think that would be relevant for this particular debate. Firstly, I would like to say that Mrs Dunne does an outstanding job in her operations on this committee. Perhaps it is that outstanding job which is part of this motion today, and it appears to be a part of Mr Hargreaves’s ongoing vendetta against Mrs Dunne. We have seen that time and time again in this place from the most disgraceful language used by Mr Hargreaves against Mrs Dunne and his persecution of her in the chair. We see it again today with the “get Mrs Dunne” motion to throw her off a committee. It is a disgraceful motion and it should not be supported. It is part of a pattern of behaviour from John Hargreaves towards Mrs Dunne—this pattern of bullying that we have seen time and time again. The latest expression of that is “we’ll throw her off the committee because we don’t like her”.
It is an absurd motion. The fact that the Labor Party and the Greens are getting together to endorse this motion shows how tight they are. Mrs Dunne has alluded to some of the motivation for the Greens. It shows how close they are. Mr Hargreaves continues this vendetta against Mrs Dunne. I do not know what it is that he has against Mrs Dunne. I do not know if it is the fact that she continually runs rings around him in their varying roles or if it is some other personal complaint or a bit of personal animosity he has against her.
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