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- 4 May 2005
F6 Motorway Proposal
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Page: 15578
Mr JOHN BROGDEN: My question without notice is to the Premier. Given that the prominent left-wing member of Parliament, the honourable member for Miranda, and the former Minister for Roads, the Hon. Carl Scully, oppose the construction of the F6, but the honourable member for Heathcote and the current Minister for Roads, Michael Costa, support the construction of the F6, exactly what is his position and will he build the road?
Mr BOB CARR: Of all the leaders of all the political parties on all the continents washed by the seven seas to raise factional considerations, I would have least expected it from this man.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! Government members will come to order.
Mr BOB CARR: Here I have a sheaf of references from local papers in the last two weeks about factions in the Liberal Party.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! A number of members of the Opposition are behaving in a grossly disorderly way by raising photocopies of newspapers in the Chamber. A number of them are already on several calls to order. Those members are deemed to be on three calls.
[Interruption]
Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for Gosford to order.
Mr BOB CARR: Honourable members might be aware of my recent references in Parliament to the honourable member for Cronulla. I said he was a sterling member of Parliament—and to think that because of factionalism he faces a leadership challenge! He is now being quoted in his local newspaper as saying how good he is and quoting me in his support. He is saying the reason he ought to get another run is, "The Premier praised me in the Parliament. The Premier referred to me as a champion parliamentarian." I am happy to be quoted on his brochure seeking preselection when the time comes. Since the House last met we have been treated to reports that people allegedly of a certain ethnicity recruited to the Liberal Party by the right wing are rapidly taking it over and flashing pistols to intimidate opponents. They are now turning up at meetings, but the Leader of the Opposition will not stand up to them. He will not tell them to stop doing it. He is intimidated by these people. So they are now turning up, and the Leader of the Opposition will not stand up to them. He will not tell them to stop. They are turning up to Liberal Party branch meetings, armed to the teeth.
Mr Andrew Tink: Point of order: My point of order relates to relevance. The Premier is brandishing press clippings and he has the wrong one.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! There is no point of order. The honourable member for Epping will resume his seat. I place him on three calls to order.
Mr BOB CARR: Why does this remind me of Thursdays? The Opposition has run out of questions a day earlier.
Mr John Brogden: Point of order—
Mr Carl Scully: You have run out of questions.
Mr John Brogden: Not as long as the Minister for Police is in the job. There are plenty of questions about him. I asked the Premier whether he will build the F6. Will he build the F6? The people from the St George and Sutherland Shire Leader want to know.
Mr BOB CARR: In a northern suburbs newspaper there is a report that the honourable member for The Hills—I have not heard of him, but I presume they use him—will lose his preselection because of Liberal Party factionalism. He can run off to his local branches and say that the Premier described him as a champion parliamentarian. I so baptise him now!
Mr SPEAKER: Order! Honourable members will contain their excitement.
Mr BOB CARR: In his last preselection he faced six opponents. I hope he gets through next time unscathed. The other member from The Hills district, the honourable member for Baulkham Hills, is also facing a preselection threat. He may quote me in his brochure and say that the Premier described him as an eminent Liberal moderate. Not since that intellectual front-runner, Ted Pickering, has there been someone quite as astute as he is, but now he is going to be taken out by the extreme fundamentalist right wing group that is taking over the Liberal Party, unresisted and unopposed by the Leader of the Opposition.
The honourable member for Lane Cove has given some briefings. As the Iraqi War continued beyond earlier expectations, we in the Labor Party all expected him to duck over there to the field command, or at least take his typewriter and host a few cocktail parties. The editor of the North Shore Times has been forced to defend him against Sam Witheridge, who described him as dead wood. Even in Wagga Wagga there has been the headline "Unrest in Liberals may hinder State vote result". The article states, "All over the State, branch stacking revives enmity"—and it is not in the Labor Party. That type of thing will not be found in the Labor Party. The article is about "three moderate Liberal MPs who are expected to face searing preselection battles, as factional warfare steps up in the Liberal Party." The article states:
There are allegations that John Brogden is failing to show leadership and stop the branch stacking.
Despite the common perception that Labor suffers from the factions disease, the conservative side of politics is stricken with this outbreak of factional fighting. John Ryan, Patricia Forsythe, Don Harwin—
Apparently they are members of the upper House. I have never heard of them, but apparently they are members of that Chamber and they face preselection wipe-out, as well as the two from The Hills area—all due to branch stacking. Laurie Oakes, who normally writes about national political affairs, has been forced to devote a column to Liberal Party branch stacking and refers to an extremist group taking over a once great political party.
Mr Barry O'Farrell: Point of order. My point of order is relevance. The answer does not go to the F6. It goes to branch stacking. Tell us about Walt Secord and branch stacking. Tell us about what Walt Secord has got in mind for the honourable member for Coogee.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! The Deputy Leader of the Opposition will resume his seat.
Mr BOB CARR: All this has occurred since the House last met. This is all new material. We were told in a recent Daily Telegraph report that Leader of The Nationals has lately had a "frosty relationship" with the Leader of the Liberal Party. Why is the shadow Treasurer sitting way down the back of the Chamber? She has an important job. I invite her to the front bench. She should come up and sit at the top of the Opposition front bench, which is where the shadow Treasury belongs, as I am sure all Labor members agree. In no government in this State's history has a State shadow Treasurer been anywhere except on the front bench.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for The Hills to order.
Mr BOB CARR: The Opposition has a Treasury spokesperson sitting way off, down the back of the Chamber. The honourable member for Southern Highlands should come on up to the front bench. That is where a shadow Treasurer ought to be.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for Penrith to order.
Mr John Brogden: Point of order: The Logies were last week, Bob.
Mr SPEAKER: What is the Leader of the Opposition's point of order?
Mr John Brogden: That performance is barely worthy of the Logies, Bob. Tell us about the F6.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! The Leader of the Opposition will resume his seat.
Mr BOB CARR: It must be Thursday, because the Opposition has run out of questions. That is the telltale sign that it is Thursday. This is the Thursday report. I read from the Daily Telegraph dated 13 April:
Liberal Leader John Brogden yesterday officially elevated the former archaeologist, rural conservationist and part-owner of a sheep farm from planning spokeswoman to the shadow treasury job …
On the basis of the carefully researched question asked yesterday by the honourable member for Southern Highlands, I would say that, as a Treasurer, she would make a very good archaeologist. By the way, her local paper came out today with the latest performance in share tipping. As honourable members know, this is a weekly occurrence. There are five people, including primary school captains and others, who are tipping shares. Whose selection was at the bottom once again? None other than our friendly archaeologist, the shadow Treasurer. If she had been in control of State funds, in the space of one week she would have lost 11.4 per cent, or more than $1 billion.
A member of the shadow Cabinet was quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald as saying on 13 April when the honourable member for Southern Highlands was appointed—this statement shows the type of loyalty within the Opposition that would never be found in any other political party—"Peta Seaton has no evident familiarity or empathy with numerical work." Without being unkind, I might say that that was made very clear by the share tipping game. The shadow Treasurer has big choices to make: she can stay down the back of the Chamber, or she can accept my invitation, that is to say the Labor members' invitation, to move up to the front bench. What do Labor members say? I am sure they think that the shadow Treasurer should be at the front bench end of the Chamber. After all, the shadow Treasurer is the people's choice. That is the people's wish.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! The Leader of The Nationals will resume his seat.
Mr BOB CARR: The second thing I strongly recommend after her recent losses in the share market is that she drop out of the Southern Highlands game, because I would hate to have to refer to this week after week. To be defeated by a local poultry farmer and the captain of the primary school—
Mr John Brogden: Point of order—
Mr BOB CARR: Oh, he is kidding. Stop bringing this stuff in!
Mr John Brogden: The question is whether the Government is going to build the F6. The Premier can laugh as much as he likes, but Barry Collier's job is on the line over this. Will he or will he not build the F6?
Mr SPEAKER: Order! The Leader of the Opposition will resume his seat.
Mr BOB CARR: It is Wednesday and the Opposition has already run out of questions. The Sydney Morning Herald of 13 April stated:
Several senior Liberals expressed surprise that Mr Debnam, a former Treasury spokesman–
a "former Treasury spokesman", remember that—
had been overlooked in favour of Ms Seaton.
He has our sympathies too. A member of the shadow cabinet team said:
Most of us expected someone like Peter Debnam–
I do not think there is anyone like Peter Debnam—
to pick up Treasury because he had done it very effectively before.
I had forgotten that he had ever been shadow Treasurer, but I suppose it might be said that he had done it effectively. The spokesman continued:
Peta Seaton has no evident familiarity or empathy with numerical work.
By the way, the land that was referred to by the Leader of the Opposition has been secured as a road corridor for the past 50 years.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! A number of members are on three calls to order. I have resisted requests that the Sergeant-at-Arms remove several members, to whom I am paying close attention. I would like to finish question time without ejecting members from the Chamber, but that is totally up to them.
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