Page 3243 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 22 August 2012
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Mr Barr: I am sorry, Madam Deputy Speaker.
MR SMYTH: You should stop him. Why do you not warn him? You warned several of us today for interjecting. He constantly interjects and you do not warn him.
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: You were having a conversation with him across the chamber.
MR SMYTH: Stop applying a double standard, Madam Deputy Speaker.
Mr Barr: I apologise, Madam Deputy Speaker.
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Thank you very much.
Mr Hargreaves interjecting—
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Mr Hargreaves, you are not helping.
MR SMYTH: Mr Hargreaves never helps, Madam Deputy Speaker, and you should know that; he ignores you completely.
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Will you just continue and address the chair.
MR SMYTH: The vote of the Greens and Labor tonight is, in fact, a snub to the business community. This is a reasonable request. It is slightly different to the way that we would normally do business, but I thought there was a new paradigm. What happened to that new paradigm and the changing way of doing business in the Assembly? Apparently that does not apply to proposals from the Liberal Party or any proposal that might seek clarity for the business community.
By opposing this proposal tonight it will simply lead to more red tape. It will certainly lead to continued uncertainty into the future until this can be resolved clearly by the next Assembly. I think it is unfortunate that we cannot set up a process that allows people to be heard. Ms Hunter said, “We talked to the commissioner and there’s apparently nothing wrong.” The commissioner is applying it as he sees fit to do so. Perhaps that is his right as outlined under the law, but what we are saying is that people are saying that they cannot get a fair hearing. They are not being heard and nothing is changing.
I am not saying that everything should change. What I am saying is that there should be a period where people are not subjected to further legal action when perhaps this can be resolved in a more orderly fashion. That is simply the position that we are putting forward here tonight. I would have thought that under the new paradigm people would have been accepting of this proposal, but I think the closed minds of the far left and the inability of the left to actually come to an arrangement with business shows that there is only one party in this place that is interested in business in the ACT and that is the Liberal Party.
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