- Home
- Hansard & Papers
- Legislative Assembly
- 2 September 2003
Local Government Boundary Changes
Printing Tips |
Print selected text
| Full Day Hansard Transcript
« Prior Item |
Item 22 of 46
| Next Item »
Page: 2954
Mr FRASER: My question without notice is directed to the Premier. What did the Premier mean when he said he was going to "crack the whip" on councils that did not make their submissions to the boundaries commission by 30 August? Will the Premier now dissolve those councils, as the Minister for Local Government proposes to do with Yarrowlumla?
Mr CARR: Why crack the whip when, without a whip being cracked, 150 councils have responded to our call for reform? The Leader of the National Party is clever: he has designed his little sticker. With the power of gentle suggestion 150 councils have come forward with their plans for boundary adjustment. We are very pleased with the number and quality of the responses. Many councils are suggesting boundary changes and some are suggesting voluntary amalgamations. Others have developed innovative ideas for improved services. The Opposition is clever: it has its little sticker. Its members sit around the table with their butcher's paper and crayons, tongues sticking out, doing their little workshop. They have a little shadow ministry workshop with butcher's paper. In comes the Whip and crayons are handed out around the table.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! Earlier in question time the Leader of the National Party passed around a number of stickers. I had hoped that, in keeping with the standards of the House, the stickers would not be used during question time or otherwise displayed in the Chamber. It is now obvious that this was a pre-determined stunt; it was childish and out of character. The honourable member for Coffs Harbour has asked a question relating to a matter of concern to the community. I expect him to listen to the Premier's response with the dignity the question deserves.
Mr CARR: It is sad when an Opposition is reduced to bringing little objects into the Chamber as a stunt. Nothing is more repellent to those of us who believe in parliamentary democracy.
Mr J. H. Turner: Point of order: During your absence at the last sitting the Acting-Speaker clearly acknowledged the right of people to hand out things when he allowed the Deputy Premier to wave around a T-shirt from a Forster or Taree radio station.
Mr CARR: The gallery will note the air of good-humour that pervades the Chamber—
Mr Hazzard: Point of order—
Mr CARR: —until this moment. You are knocking off Costa's clothes line.
Mr Hazzard: I have not, as yet, had my hair shaved, but I will take the advice of the Premier and do it for charity. The Premier created a precedent in this House, rather unfortunately, when he came into this Chamber last year with a little helmet on one occasion, and with newspapers on other occasions. You, sir, and your predecessors, have allowed the Premier on a number of occasions to bring in these sorts of items. Unless the rules are the same for both sides, one can expect the Opposition to play by the Government's rules.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! The honourable member for Wakehurst would be aware that I was not in the Chair last year. I have no recollection of such matters.
Mr CARR: The gallery will note the air of good-humoured exchange in this House. It is good that there are no great issues between the two sides in acknowledging that the Government is doing a sound job.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call the honourable member for Epping to order.
Mr CARR: In place of the antagonism and divisive exchanges that disfigure the atmosphere of other parliaments, everyone here is having a joke and making a point as they do so, creating an air of good humour. There are big smiles all round. I have been asked a question about local government boundaries. The answer is that 150 councils have responded—
Mr Piccoli: With a gun to their head.
Mr CARR: Not with a gun to their heads. What a silly thing to say. You ought to go to those workshops and play with those crayons. These self-respecting sovereign bodies are themselves coming forward to the Government with their own proposals, not nonsense drawn on butcher's paper with crayon but carefully worked out proposals to adjust boundaries. In these circumstances, faced with a veritable avalanche of proposals for boundary adjustment, we are doing the only right and proper thing in giving them due consideration. That is what we do. The suggestion that it has all happened in response to some, what did he say, "cracking of the whip" is to be dispelled.
Mr Fraser: I didn't say that. You did.
Mr CARR: I would not have said such a thing. In the spirit of goodwill I suggest to the Opposition that when they get together around that table, spread out the butcher's paper and are issued with the green, brown and yellow crayons, they give us their ideas on boundary adjustment; and they, too, will be taken into account.
Mr FRASER: I ask a supplementary question. In light of the Premier's response that 150 councils have now made responses to the Boundaries Commission, will this mean a delay in the council elections of March next year?
Mr CARR: No.
Questions without notice concluded.
Last modified 05/12/2007 16:41:51 : Update this page