Page 3135 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 24 September 2014

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the city via Harrison. This was considered a very circuitous route from Crace to the city, and one of the objectives of the network change was to make the routes more direct, which was based on customer feedback. The experience of network 12 was that most people were connecting at the Gungahlin marketplace. In the new network 14 the Crace service now terminates at the Gungahlin town centre and it connects with the higher frequency Red Rapid to the city. This is what most people were doing anyway. Buses to the city depart Gungahlin every few minutes in the morning peak, so there are a large number of connections for residents of Crace to connect to at the market place.

Further, earlier Mrs Jones asked me about the Narrabundah playground. This is actually in my letter to Mrs Jones but she did not mention this in her question. The vacant block is currently zoned as community facilities land in the territory plan; therefore the construction of a playground on the land would not be supported. Additionally, in line with ACT design standards for urban infrastructure, the block size is small and would be unable to accommodate a playground. Mrs Jones then asked me about the size of the existing site, and my advice is the design standards have probably changed since that previous playground was constructed in the 1960s, if in fact there were any design standards at that time.

Unparliamentary words

Statement by Speaker

MADAM SPEAKER: Just before we adjourned for lunch, I said I would come back in relation to a point of order raised by Mr Gentleman just before the adjournment.

Mr Gentleman took exception to words that Mr Wall spoke. To put them in context, he said:

… we have got them paying clean start for cleaning in some government buildings; and then, in other instances, when a tender goes out, they say, “We will pay a hybrid.” The complexity and the red tape that adds to a business are nothing but prohibitive. For those opposite to stand up and claim anything else is just dishonest.

I think these are the offending words:

For those opposite to stand up and claim anything else is just dishonest.

Mr Gentleman took a point of order. I presume that you were referring in fact to the ruling which I thought was the case, which is outlined on page 170 of the Companion to the Standing Orders, at paragraph 10.83, which refers to the ruling by Mr Cornwell in 1996, referring to a previous ruling in 1981 by Speaker Snedden in the House of Representatives, where Speaker Snedden said:

I think that if an accusation is made against members of the House which, if made against any one of them, would be unparliamentary and offensive, it is in the interests of the comity of this House that it should not be made


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