Page 1399 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 13 May 2014
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
speech; Mr Gentleman outlined it in his speech.” Mr Coe was able to say, “You did not.” That was the gotcha moment. We all knew it. That is what led to the Chief Minister standing up in this place and saying, “We got it from the party room; we had that discussion.” It led then to Mr Rattenbury standing up in this place, saying that there had been murkiness, and saying that the Chief Minister’s view, or version, seemed to be the truth. That has been later debunked by Mr Gentleman.
That is a bit beside the point, but it goes to the point that this mob opposite are trying to deny that this information got out, when we now know—based on the slippery versions, the shifting sands, the fact that it was murky and the fact that there were a number of versions, some of which were not true—that they are trying to hide the fact that this happened.
Madam Speaker, we need to have a privileges committee so that the members of the committee, the minister and any other witnesses can put their point forward. And it can be done in a proper way where we have a committee with one member from the opposition, one from the government and one from the crossbench. I am not presupposing what that committee would find, but for this place, with the evidence before it—and we have all been in this place to see what that evidence is—to deny the opportunity for that privileges committee to occur is like an obstruction of justice.
Again, we are seeing tawdriness, we are seeing breaches of standing orders, we are seeing information peddled between members of committees and ministers, we are seeing shambolic committee processes, and we are seeing the numbers on that side of the Assembly doing what a majority government does—close down debate, deny proper accountability, deny proper examination when things have gone wrong.
This is what we would expect from an old government. A government that is now 13 years old is going to make mistakes, is going to get sloppy, is going to get arrogant. We heard it in the response to the Chief Minister’s question today about the mental health facility. Instead of answering the question, instead of explaining or giving the responsible answer of “Yes, I misled”—
Mr Corbell: Point of order.
MADAM SPEAKER: On a point of order.
Mr Corbell: Relevance, Madam Speaker. I do not think the question in question time has anything to do with this resolution.
MADAM SPEAKER: I uphold the point of order and ask the Leader of the Opposition to concentrate on the question of whether a privileges committee should be established.
MR HANSON: Thank you, Madam Speaker; I will get back to the point. This is an old government; it is a government that is increasingly getting arrogant; it is a government that increasingly does not care about what the truth is. People over there are saying: “We got elected, and that is all that matters. We have got the numbers, and
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video