Member Named
| About this Item |
Subjects | Members of Parliament; Parliament: New South Wales |
Speakers | Speaker; Scully Mr Carl; Tink Mr Andrew |
Business | Division, Members, Motion |
Commentary | Andrew Tink named and suspended from the House for two days |
Page: 4512
Mr SPEAKER: Order! I name the honourable member for Epping for persistently and wilfully disregarding the authority of the Chair.
Mr CARL SCULLY (Smithfield—Minister for Roads, and Minister for Housing) [2.47 p.m.]: I move:
That the honourable member for Epping, Mr Tink, be suspended from the service of the House forthwith.
Mr ANDREW TINK (Epping) [2.47 p.m.]: After the way the House has been run and chaired by you, Mr Speaker, over the past few months, I have no alternative but to make the following statement. This House, under your speakership, is chaired in a totally partisan way. At every turn you favour the Government and ignore the Opposition. Yesterday you ignored the point of order taken by the honourable member for Coffs Harbour pursuant to Standing Order 138. You ignore the points of order repeatedly taken by Opposition members about Government Ministers. You refuse to uphold the standing orders of the House and you refuse repeatedly to give, what is termed in ordinary parlance, a fair go.
As shadow Leader of the House, week in and week out, sitting day after sitting day, I have attempted to be reasonable, moderate and modest in taking points of order to try to ensure balance in what passes for the business of the House during question time. The Opposition got a much better deal under your predecessor John Murray. The partisanship you displayed as a Minister in your handling of the Cecil Hills matter was infamous. It was partisanship of the worst kind and it involved smearing people and the misuse of information. Given your conduct in this Chamber in the chair and the way in which you handle yourself in the discharge of your responsibilities, nothing has changed. You came here on day one and said you would handle yourself in a bipartisan way. That was the last time we saw it. From there on it was downhill, heading south all the way.
Mr Speaker, you will not earn the respect of the Parliament until you treat us in a fair and bipartisan way. You will not earn the respect of the Parliament until you uphold Standing Order 138. You will not earn the respect of the Parliament until you make Ministers give answers relevant to the questions being asked. When we get up to speak about issues in the short time available to us to deal with urgency motions and the like we are constantly interrupted and our time to speak is curtailed. We do not have the time to speak that is our due. That is because of the partisan way in which the standing orders are enforced in this House. The Opposition gets but a few minutes of question time. When one adds up the total time during which we must ask our questions, one sees that it may be about three minutes out of 50 minutes. The Ministers consistently use the time, which is the only time during which they are accountable in this House, to drivel on with the most ridiculous, partisan, irrelevant rubbish that I have heard during my time in this place.
Mr Speaker, the contempt in which this side of the Parliament holds you will be maintained until you lift your game and treat us all with an equal degree of fairness. That is what you were elected to do, not to be the Premier's lackey. We would like to think that that finished with the Cecil Hills matter. It is time that you demonstrated that you are the servant of the entire House and not the servant of the Premier and a couple of well-timed twitches from the Leader of the House when he wants you to do his bidding.
Question—That the honourable member for Epping be suspended from the service of the House—put.
The House divided.
Ayes, 55
Ms Allan
Mr Amery
Ms Andrews
Mr Barr
Mr Bartlett
Ms Beamer
Mr Black
Mr Brown
Ms Burney
Miss Burton
Mr Campbell
Mr Carr
Mr Collier
Mr Corrigan
Mr Crittenden
Ms D'Amore
Mr Debus
Mr Draper
Mr Gaudry | Mr Gibson
Mr Greene
Ms Hay
Mr Hickey
Mr Hunter
Ms Judge
Ms Keneally
Mr Knowles
Mr Lynch
Mr McBride
Mr McGrane
Mr McLeay
Ms Meagher
Ms Megarrity
Mr Mills
Ms Moore
Mr Morris
Mr Newell
Ms Nori | Mr Orkopoulos
Mrs Paluzzano
Mr Pearce
Mrs Perry
Mr Price
Dr Refshauge
Ms Saliba
Mr Sartor
Mr Scully
Mr Shearan
Mr Torbay
Mr Tripodi
Mr Watkins
Mr West
Mr Whan
Tellers,
Mr Ashton
Mr Martin |
Noes, 30
Mr Aplin
Mr Armstrong
Ms Berejiklian
Mr Brogden
Mr Cansdell
Mr Constance
Mr Debnam
Mr Fraser
Mrs Hancock
Mr Hartcher
Mr Hazzard | Ms Hodgkinson
Mrs Hopwood
Mr Humpherson
Mr Kerr
Mr Merton
Mr O'Farrell
Mr Page
Mr Pringle
Mr Richardson
Mr Roberts
Ms Seaton | Mrs Skinner
Mr Slack-Smith
Mr Souris
Mr Stoner
Mr Tink
Mr R.W. Turner
Tellers,
Mr George
|
Pair
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Motion agreed to.
Mr SPEAKER: Order! This being the first occasion on which the honourable member for Epping has been suspended during this session, the suspension will be for two sitting days.
[The honourable member for Epping left the Chamber, accompanied by the Deputy Serjeant-at-Arms.]