Page 1237 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 11 April 2018
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speech in this place condemning the Labor Party for their 489 poker machines? How many times has he called on the Labor Party to refuse to accept any money from the Canberra Labour Club? How many times has he come in and said the Tradies should not be making a contribution based on where their money comes from? How many times has Mr Rattenbury come in here and said the Labor Party should not be a developer?
The Labor Party is a developer, and what is more, it gets free kicks along the way. They do not pay a lease variation charge; they do not pay change of use charge; they get free kicks. They did 36 apartments in Braddon and did not pay a cent to vary that lease. And on not one occasion has Mr Rattenbury or Ms Le Couteur come into this place and asked questions about it. They will happily ask questions about anything to do with the Liberal Party but never about their coalition partners, never about the millions of dollars of windfall that the government’s mates make through industries that Mr Rattenbury supposedly thinks are immoral.
Mr Rattenbury has double standards here and so does the Attorney-General when he talks about the greyhound industry in isolation. We will happily stand up for those involved in the greyhound industry. We will happily stand up for those in the thoroughbred industry or any other industry in Canberra. There should be fair regulations and rules in place, and when people comply with those rules, when they meet their end of the bargain, they should not be derided by the government that is supposedly there to represent them.
What we in effect have is the Labor Party abandoning their base. The Labor Party are abandoning honest, working-class people with an honest pursuit. That is why the New South Wales Labor Party rallied so hard against the Liberal government when they made this mistake too. But at least the coalition government in New South Wales had the guts to say that they made a mistake, unlike the coalition government here in the ACT. This is a coalition government that doubles down even when it makes mistakes. They are stubborn, and they will happily go against working-class people with a good, honest pursuit. What we have here is, in effect, class welfare.
It is also interesting that no other fellow travellers in the union movement seem to be attacking the government. Yes, one or two unions have said a little bit, but what about all the other unions? Why did all the other unions not come out and say that this is wrong, in the same way that so many of them came out in New South Wales and bagged out the coalition government when they made this mistake?
I commend Mr Parton for taking on this issue. This is an issue that needed a champion, and this issue got a champion in Mr Parton. Mr Parton is standing up for hundreds of people who depend on this for their livelihood, for their way of life and for their family’s income as well.
It will be a very sad event on 30 April, in 19 days time. There will be a celebration of all that has happened in the past, but there will also be serious sympathy expressed at the track, knowing that it will be the last one in this term of government. The Canberra Liberals believe this is a pursuit that could come back to life beyond the end of April, and we will be doing everything we can to ensure that greyhound racing comes back to life in the territory after this coalition government.
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