Page 2025 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 5 August 2014
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12 per cent of first preferences that has not sent a member to this place for that electorate. Madam Speaker, these moral numbers which Mr Rattenbury talks about, I think, are somewhat of a furphy.
Then he accuses the old parties—the two old, evil, nasty parties—of feathering our own nests. Quite frankly, what is the real motivation for Mr Rattenbury wanting seven-member electorates or nine-member electorates? He says it is for the good people of the Christian Democratic Party. He says it is for the Motorist Party. He says it is for the Gungahlin Equality Party. No, Madam Speaker, it is for the Greens. It is for the Greens who, incidentally, are getting fairly old themselves actually. It is a bit much to be accusing the Liberal and Labor parties of being evil and old when, in fact, the Greens may well bear some very similar characteristics to those of the two major parties he refers to.
But another thing that is interesting that I think we often overlook is just how strategic the Greens are when it comes to their fundraising. Some of you may not be aware of the Greens national database for fundraising. This national database for fundraising is a fascinating beast. Whenever anybody donates to the Greens, they go into a national database. They actually get categorised as to what level of donor they are. They could be a potential donor, in which case their website on this database suggests how frequently they should be called, who should call them, what the script should be, how many times they should be called in any given year, whether they are a lost cause, whether they are a prosperous opportunity. This website, this database, I find to be quite staggering. I would find it very hard to believe that Labor or Liberal have anything like it.
It would be interesting for Mr Rattenbury to refute this. However, it just so happens that, very unfortunately, they left the procedures manual for this database on public display on the back of the ACT Greens website. It just so happens that the Greens on their ACT party website, perhaps to the extreme disappointment of the rest of the country, have left the real inner workings of the Greens’ beast on full public display.
I understand that this database procedures manual which dictates how the Greens are meant to fundraise and how they are meant to call—
Mr Corbell: On a point of order, Madam Speaker. As interesting as this is—
Mr Hanson: It is fascinating; don’t stop him.
Mr Corbell: It is fascinating, Madam Speaker, but the bill before us is a bill to amend the size of the Assembly; it is not about the fundraising practices of any particular party. I ask you to call Mr Coe to order.
MADAM SPEAKER: On the point of order, Mr Hanson.
Mr Hanson: On the point of order, Madam Speaker. The point is that I think Mr Coe is trying to explain the motivation of the Greens in this matter. The Greens minister has stood up and said that his intent in all things electoral is only morally pure and for the best interests of the people of the ACT, whereas it is fundamentally quite clearly
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