Page 2693 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 6 June 2012
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MR SESELJA: No, it is not.
Mr Hanson: On the point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker, clearly it is not. It is a substantive matter. It is a part of the motion. I think that it is being dealt with appropriately. It has not been used before as unparliamentary language. There has been no precedent for that. We have certain terms that are used such as liar or calling someone a coward. But it is simply raising an issue of bullying, which is not unparliamentary. There is no point of order.
Dr Bourke: On the point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker, bullying is an offence under the Work Health and Safety Act—
Opposition members interjecting—
Dr Bourke: and it is, therefore, alleging unparliamentary behaviour.
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Members! Dr Bourke, are you finished?
Dr Bourke: Yes.
Mrs Dunne: Yes, he is.
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: I do not need your advice. I asked Dr Bourke if he was finished. I did not hear Mr Seselja actually call the health minister a bully. I heard him say that she had bullied other people outside this place but I did not hear him say that she was a bully, but I will keep my ear open for that. Mr Seselja.
MR SESELJA: Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. That is exactly what has happened. And we saw it from both the current Chief Minister and the former Chief Minister. Mr Hanson outlined it in his speech. When people—doctors—raised legitimate concerns, Katy Gallagher went after them. She went after them publicly. Jon Stanhope threatened to go through a muckraking exercise to see if he could find any dirt on them.
That is how this government treated people who are trying to make the system better. They are whistleblowers, if you like—people who go out there and say something is not right in the system. If you were fair dinkum about fixing it you would have listened to those people. You would not have doctors groups calling for your resignation. That does not happen very often in the ACT. There are many groups who get very concerned with various actions from this government. But it has been very rare, in my experience, to hear of respected industry groups calling for the resignation of a minister, and Katy Gallagher takes that honour as a health minister who has so badly lost the confidence of doctors that they called for her resignation.
Ms Gallagher thinks that it is all about her when the community is lied to. We heard it on radio the other day. We have got this scandal at Canberra Hospital where Canberrans have been lied to about their hospital system. They have been lied to about how long they have to wait. They have been told that their experience is not real
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