Hon KEN TRAVERS: [...] There is a $10 million black hole in the budget when the government promised sporting infrastructure to communities throughout the state but it does not have a funding stream for it at the moment. However, the government is telling everyone it is still going to be funded over the next three years.
Hon Jon Ford: You can borrow the money!
Hon KEN TRAVERS: We could borrow the money! Again, we could borrow the money or say, “Don’t worry about that; don’t you worry about that.” We have almost got Joh Bjelke-Petersen back again in the new
Premier —Hon Kate Doust: Hansard won’t pick up the accent!
Hon KEN TRAVERS: So long as Hon Kate Doust records for the purposes of Hansard that it was a fantastic impersonation of Joh Bjelke-Petersen, then we will be fine.
Hon Kate Doust: I don’t think so.
Subject: Loan Bill 2009 [Legislative Council - Second Reading]
Date: 23 June 2009
Hansard reference: p. 5358 [online (pdf)]
Mr FRASER: [...] Let us go to this point: all of a sudden the care and concern that comes from the bankrupted Liberals over on the other side of the parliament about what we need to do to get our credit rating—
Mr DICKSON: Mr Speaker, I rise to a point of order. Mr Speaker, this side of the floor is called the LNP and I would like us to be called by our right name. This man does not have a mandate. He is selling out our children’s future.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! Resume your seat.
Mr DICKSON: He has sold out the unions and he doesn’t give a damn about the people of Queensland.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! Resume your seat. There is no point of order.
Mr Robertson: You were bankrupt.
Mr Dickson: Mate, you’re doing a great job! That’s why you’re not running Health anymore, mate—you couldn’t manage it!
Mr SPEAKER: Order! The honourable member for Buderim will withdraw the expression ‘doesn’t give a damn’. That is unparliamentary.
Mr Dickson: I withdraw and I show respect to you, Mr Speaker.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! Thank you very much. The honourable the Treasurer. Resume the clock.
Mr FRASER: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Before the interruption from the muppets bench at the back of the parliament—
Mr DICKSON: Mr Speaker, I rise to a point of order. I take that personally. I ask the member to withdraw, please. We are not muppets. I take offence and I ask that it be withdrawn.
Mr FRASER: I think the muppets could take offence. I am not sure that the member for Kawana
could.Mr Dickson: The member for Buderim, Treasurer, if you can get it right. You can’t get that right
either, like you can’t get the budget right.Mr SPEAKER: Order! Resume your seat. The honourable the Treasurer has not referred to the honourable member by his correct title. That is what he is taking offence at.
Mr Messenger: Come on, ‘Kid Chaos’; get it right.
Mr SPEAKER: Let’s deal with one at a time. I will ask the honourable the Treasurer to withdraw
the expression for the honourable member for Buderim. Then I will come to the member for Burnett.Mr FRASER: I intend to refer to the member for Buderim as the correct title of the member for
Buderim. Thank you, Mr Speaker.Mr SPEAKER: Now, the honourable member for Burnett, you will withdraw the expression which
is unparliamentary as well.Mr MESSENGER: I withdraw, Mr Speaker.
Mr SPEAKER: Thank you. Now let us resume the clock and let us get back to question time.
Mr FRASER: Thank you, Mr Speaker. I was making the analogy that the old blokes who sit up the back in the muppets, who have been remaindered away and only carp and criticise—
Opposition members interjected.
Subject: Queensland Economy [Legislative Assembly - Questions Without Notice]
Date: 16 June 2009
Hansard reference: pp. 892-893 [online (pdf)]
Mr HOBBS: [...] If you want to save some money, why do you not scrap the Traveston Dam—$2.5 billion? There is an easy way to pick up a few dollars. Let us look at this fuel tax that you are going to levy. It is 9.2c per litre.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Warrego, I will not warn you again about the use of the word ‘you’.
Mr Wallace: ‘Ewe’ is a female sheep.
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Thuringowa!
Mr HOBBS: I take the point. There are a few sheep over there—and a few goats, too.
Mr WALLACE: I rise to a point of order. We know where the sheep and goats lie in this House.
Mr HOBBS: If the cap fits—
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Let us not have the debate between two people. Let us let the whole of the House listen to the debate.
Subject: Appropriation (Parliament) Bill / Appropriation Bill / Infrastructure Investment (Asset Restructuring and Disposal) Bill / Fuel Subsidy Repeal and Revenue and Other Legislation Amendment Bill [Legislative Assembly - Second Reading -- Cognate Debate]
Date: 19 June 2009
Hansard reference: p. 1174 [online (pdf)]
Managed to forget to post yesterday, so here’s a bonus one for Tuesday…
The PRESIDENT: Order! I give the call to Hon Giz Watson.
Several members interjected.
The PRESIDENT: Order! There is only one Hon Giz Watson in the chamber that I am aware of.
Hon GIZ WATSON: Let us hope so, Mr President!
Subject: Grain Rail Freight Network [Legislative Assembly - Questions Without Notice]
Date: 25 June 2009
Hansard reference: p. 5471 [online (pdf)]
Hon KATE DOUST: [...] I am not sure what the members opposite find so funny.
Hon Norman Moore: He was laughing at a joke I made.
Hon KATE DOUST: I am surprised that Hon Norman Moore would make a joke.
Hon Norman Moore: I was just asking why he couldn’t keep the sun shining 24 hours a day; surely you would expect that of him as Minister for Energy.
Hon KATE DOUST: We will have that discussion later, I think.
Hon Norman Moore: And the wind should blow all the time!
Hon KATE DOUST: It does, when he gets to his feet; it really does blow! He has a lot of answers and there is a lot of hot air from that side!
Subject: Appropriation (Consolidated Account) Recurrent 2009-10 Bill 2009 / Appropriation (Consolidated Account) Capital 2009-10 Bill 2009 [Legislative Assembly - Second Reading -- Cognate Debate]
Date: 25 June 2009
Hansard reference: p. 5440 [online (pdf)]
Mr SCHWARTEN: [...] Showering facilities have also been constructed so that public servants who want to cycle to work can then have a shower and again help save the environment—a much greener outcome sitting with Q2.
Ms Spence: So is the Minister for Public Works a cyclist?
Mr SCHWARTEN: Yes, I am, but not as good as the Leader of the House who cycles frequently
into town. She and her husband were recently at the Capricornia Coast and stayed with us and they set
new records in cycling. I do not get into it.I can tell members while we are on the subject of bikes that it will not be long before those over there are chanting in unison, ‘JP, on your bike.’ If you have ever seen an undertakers’ picnic, there it was yesterday. It would have put a glass eye to sleep, the effort by the—
Mr Lucas interjected.
Mr SCHWARTEN: Speaking of patting on the back, at least Brutus patted Caesar on the back— even though he had a knife! The Leader of the Opposition in waiting could not manage to do that yesterday. I have been around this place for a long time.
Opposition members interjected.
Mr SCHWARTEN: Absolutely. I get to listen to some boring speeches. I have heard some rip-tearers over the years, but nothing could beat that yesterday.
Government members interjected.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! Thankfully, the time for question time has ended.
Subject: Healthier and Greener Queensland [Legislative Assembly - Questions Without Notice]
Date: 19 June 2009
Hansard reference: pp. 1151 – 1152 [online (pdf)]
Mr FOLEY: I rise to a point of order. I could not hear a single thing being said. If everyone could take a cold shower that would be good.
Honourable members interjected.
Mr SPEAKER: Would you like to take the point of order again? I could not hear it for the noise.
Mr FOLEY: My point of order is that I just could not hear anything that was going on. I request that everyone take a chill pill so that we can actually hear the debate.
Mr SPEAKER: My sentiments exactly. That is why we will wait for order in the House before I call the member for Gregory.
Mr JOHNSON: Can you hear me now, Mr Speaker?
An opposition member: Turn your mic on.
Mr JOHNSON: Can you hear me now, Mr Speaker?
Mr SPEAKER: The marvels of technology.
Mr Lucas: Put clutch in, turn ignition.
Mr Springborg: Go through red light.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! I think that is touche on both sides. Now we will call the member for Gregory.
Subject: Department of Public Works, Capital Works [Legislative Assembly - Questions Without Notice]
Date: 18 June 2009
Hansard reference: pp. 1042 – 1043 [online (pdf)]
646. Hon KEN TRAVERS to the Minister for Transport:
I refer to the Auditor General’s report released today that highlighted the failures of the road maintenance
contracts entered into by the last Court-Barnett Liberal government.(1) Is the minister aware that these failed road maintenance contracts are outcomes-based, which means that the previous government could not have reduced the backlog by funding additional maintenance work, and that any additional funding would simply have reduced the amount of work that the contractors would be required to do?
[...]
Hon SIMON O’BRIEN replied:
(1)-(3) I believe the honourable member is mistaken in his assertion that during the boom years, while backlogs of road maintenance were being accrued year after year it was somehow —Hon Ken Travers interjected.
The PRESIDENT: Order! We have been through question time with questions asked and answered without any comment from the sidelines. Let us maintain that.
Hon SIMON O’BRIEN: I do not know why this member wants to answer his own questions. If he wants to ask me a question, I will answer the blooming thing. But I get halfway through it and then he interrupts, so that the President has to intercede and we lose the train of thought. If he is serious about it, he can give —
Hon Sally Talbot: He’s just trying to help you.
Hon SIMON O’BRIEN: Who is?
Hon Sally Talbot: Hon Ken Travers is trying to help you.
Hon SIMON O’BRIEN: Yes, sure he is. Gee, he needs to get a life.
Hon Ken Travers: Are you a bit tetchy today, minister?
The PRESIDENT: Order! Let me make this clear: it is the member’s job to ask the question; it is the minister’s job to answer it. It is my job to adjudicate on what happens in the chamber; it is not the individual member’s job. I call on the Minister for Transport to answer the question.
Hon SIMON O’BRIEN: If he has gone to all the trouble of asking a question, I will try once more to get an answer out.
Subject: Road Maintenance Contracts [Legislative Council - Questions Without Notice]
Date: 17 June 2009
Hansard reference: pp. 5116 – 5117 [online (pdf)]
Mr P. PAPALIA: [...] A cavernous gap has opened up between the minister and the people whose role it is to represent the interests of the local government sector of Western Australia, and the minister is unfairly and inappropriately attacking them for it.
Not only that—minister, do not make me laugh! I look at the police minister’s face and I cannot help laughing! It is unavoidable!
Mr R.F. Johnson: It’s a very jolly face, I know!
Mr P. PAPALIA: I return to the Minister for Local Government; I will get off the subject of the Minister for Police! I have to finish this because I have another appointment!
Subject: Local Government Amendment Bill 2009 [Legislative Assembly - Second Reading]
Date: 18 June 2009
Hansard reference: p. 5260 [online (pdf)]
Mr P.B. WATSON: [...] I have a couple of comments from the Countryman, which the member for Collie-Preston tells me is a very good paper.
Mr B.J. Grylls: You’ll have to start subscribing!
Mr P.B. WATSON: He even gets his photo in it occasionally, which is a real worry!
Mr B.J. Grylls: He does; he gets his photo in there a lot now.
Mr P.B. WATSON: In the Countryman, the WestNet Rail general manager said that the government commitment —
Mr M.P. Murray: Fancy an old lefty getting his photo in the Countryman!
Subject: Grain Rail Network – Rescue Package [Legislative Assembly - Motion]
Date: 17 June 2009
Hansard reference: p. 5213 [online (pdf)]
