Consideration of Motions to be Accorded Priority

Ms ANGELA D'AMORE (Drummoyne) [3.19 p.m.]: The motion of which I gave notice should be accorded priority because graffiti is an issue of immense importance to local communities throughout the State. It is an unsightly nuisance, it can create an atmosphere of lawlessness in otherwise peaceful communities, and it can cause further crime problems. Furthermore, cleaning up graffiti can be a very costly exercise. Given the importance of the issue, it is vital that members of Parliament, as elected representatives of the community, put forward sensible and well-thought-out plans for combating this terrible scourge. When members put forward ideas that can only be described as lazy and poorly thought out, it is incumbent upon this Parliament to hold those members to account.

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Lane Cove and the member for Manly will cease interjecting.

Ms ANGELA D'AMORE: Last week the shadow Attorney General, the member for Epping, put forward a proposal to pay $2,500 to people who report graffiti crime. The people of New South Wales deserve to have that irresponsible proposal examined in detail and subjected to debate.

[Interruption]

What are Opposition members scared off? When considering the member for Epping's ill-conceived scheme, it is important that the Parliament also considers the responsible, measured and effective plans that have been put forward by the Government to fight graffiti. For the reasons I have stated, the motion of which I have given notice should be accorded priority. I urge members to support it.

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Barwon will cease interjecting.


Mr BARRY O'FARRELL (Ku-ring-gai—Leader of the Opposition) [3.21 p.m.]: The motion of which I gave notice should take priority over the motion for which priority has been sought by the member for Drummoyne because the real motion the member for Drummoyne ought to be seeking priority for is the $50,000 she spent on an overseas trip to study regional development—as a member who represents a metropolitan electorate! This parliamentary session commenced with two Labor members caught up in scandals, the Minister for Small Business, Minister for Regulatory Reform, and Minister for Ports and Waterways and the member for Wollongong, and will conclude with two other Labor members, Belinda Neal and John Della Bosca, caught up in a scandal. Despite all the crises that affect New South Wales and all the problems faced by people in this city and in towns across New South Wales, the one connection between the scandals that occurred at the commencement of the session and the current Iguana incident scandal at the conclusion of the session is the Premier's refusal to impose any standards upon his team, to put integrity above mateship, and to show any type of leadership when it comes to problems confronting either his own party, his Ministry or New South Wales.

The SPEAKER: Order! Government members will cease interjecting.

Mr BARRY O'FARRELL: Across the State, members of the public are suffering as a result of inadequate public transport systems in the city and in the bush, our road infrastructure that seems to fail in this city and in the bush on a daily basis, the struggling health system and the hopelessness of improvement without the commission of inquiry called for by the Opposition, the inadequate mental health facilities that members opposite continue to talk up but fail to deliver, the schools across New South Wales without adequate classrooms and proper maintenance, and Aboriginal communities where, despite sexual abuse of children being four times more likely to occur there than is the case in the rest of the community, there are insufficient numbers of child sexual assault specialists providing services. I could go on and on but, instead, the point I make is that families are hurting in south-western and Western Sydney, as well as in western and south-western New South Wales, and people are frustrated by the Government's failure to deliver on the first promise the Premier made after last year's State election—to get on with fixing the problems in New South Wales.

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Monaro will cease interjecting.

Mr BARRY O'FARRELL: Fifteen months later, the problems are worse than ever. Fifteen months later we still lack leadership from the Premier and his team in terms of fixing the problems. That is because we have a Government in crisis, a Government mired by scandal, and a Government led by a man who is not prepared to lift a finger to do anything about the problems. As today's question time again demonstrated, we have incompetence in key portfolios, mates in critical positions, and factional warlords who owe their place in the Ministry not to their talent but to the Premier's support for them. The Premier is not prepared to lift a finger to replace any of his Ministers with a backbench Government member who could do a better job and who could offer the public some hope of improvement.

We have ongoing factional infighting between Ministers. The Government is so preoccupied by factional infighting that staff have time to do YouTube videos about the downfall of either one Minister or the entirety of the Government. At a time when there are critical shortages across the State in every critical area, public servants are being used to dig dirt to give the Labor Party some political advantage. That is a disgraceful waste of public resources at a time when families are suffering. Irrespective of whether a crisis concerns the Minister for Planning, the Minister for Small Business, Costa or Della Bosca, the Premier of New South Wales is a bloke who is prepared to always put cronyism ahead of public interest and who looks to the Coalition for leadership on key issues affecting the State in relation to matters such as political donations.

Contrary to what the Premier has said today, the Coalition initiated the upper House inquiry. The upper House committee supported the proposal that I promulgated in January this year. The committee of inquiry has not supported the Premier's ban on political donations—a matter on which the Government has failed to take action over the past two months. In respect of electricity privatisation, it was the Coalition that put the interests of taxpayers and rural communities to the fore. In relation to planning, it was the Coalition that proposed a policy that I am pleased to say the Minister for Planning has finally adopted. We will finally get the comprehensive review of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Act that the Coalition has been arguing is better than the piecemeal changes the Government continues to offer.

Conditions on the M5 yesterday and The Spit Bridge last night are a metaphor for New South Wales—a State that is going nowhere. Morris Iemma is a lazy lacklustre excuse for a Premier. When New South Wales wants dynamism and direction, the Premier gives us deception and dithering. He is a lame duck who will soon be a dead duck. [Time expired.]

Question—That the motion of the member for Drummoyne be accorded priority—put.

The House divided.

Question resolved in the affirmative.