Page 2000 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 7 June 2017

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MRS DUNNE: Minister, how do you reconcile your failure to appear during the advertised estimates process with your claimed commitment to openness and transparency?

MR RATTENBURY: I find this an extraordinarily grubby line of questioning from the opposition, given that some months ago I identified this issue and offered to the committee, to Mr Wall as the chair of the committee, a number of—

Mr Hanson: Madam Speaker—

MADAM SPEAKER: Minister, resume your seat.

Mr Hanson: Earlier you said that “dodgy” was not okay, but the minister has used the word “grubby”. You gave a ruling directed at us, but—

MADAM SPEAKER: There is no point of order, Mr Hanson. You can resume your seat. There is no point of order.

Mrs Dunne: I seek leave to move dissent from your ruling.

Leave not granted.

Standing orders—suspension

MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (3.24): I move:

That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent Mrs Dunne from moving dissent from the Speaker’s ruling.

Madam Speaker, the question of how this place is to be managed has become an important one. We have here today a hypocritical act on your part, which can only be addressed by a motion of dissent. The fact that members of the government would decline to have that matter aired shows that they do not have confidence in your capacity to deal with this place.

When there is a motion of dissent from a ruling, the matter needs to be cleared up, once and for all. I know how difficult it is to sit in that place and to be fair, and I have resisted the temptation to do this in the past. But the clear inconsistency of your rulings here today makes it impossible for us to ignore it any longer. That is why the standing orders should be suspended so that this matter is cleared up once and for all.

MR BARR (Kurrajong—Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development and Minister for Tourism and Major Events) (3.26): Those of us who sat through the last parliament find that performance from the Deputy Speaker quite extraordinary. That is a very poor reflection on the Deputy Speaker. I acknowledge that she in her remarks at least raised the difficulty there is for the person who sits in that chair.


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