Personal Explanation

Member's Remarks

The Hon. M.L.J. HAMILTON-SMITH (Waite—Minister for Investment and Trade, Minister for Small Business, Minister for Defence and Space Industries, Minister for Health Industries, Minister for Veterans' Affairs) (22:26): I seek leave to make a personal explanation.

Leave granted.

The Hon. M.L.J. HAMILTON-SMITH: Earlier on today, instead of opting for a graceful exit, the member for Heysen chose to misrepresent the facts of what occurred—

Mr GARDNER: Point of order, sir.

The Hon. M.L.J. HAMILTON-SMITH: —on a number of occasions—

Mr GARDNER: You have previously explained how personal explanations can be undertaken. The member for Waite is not undertaking it that way.

The SPEAKER: The member for Waite may claim to be misrepresented, but what he cannot do is say that a particular member misrepresented him, because that would be an unnecessarily confrontational way to begin a personal explanation. Let the member for Waite just explain to us the detail of how he has been misrepresented.

The Hon. M.L.J. HAMILTON-SMITH: The member for Heysen made a number of claims—

Mr GARDNER: He is starting again, sir.

The SPEAKER: No, no.

Mr GARDNER: Point of order: the member for Waite is undermining your authority and ignoring your instructions—

The SPEAKER: No, no.

The Hon. M.L.J. HAMILTON-SMITH: —that were blatantly and factually wrong.

Mr GARDNER: —and I withdraw leave.

The SPEAKER: No. Au contraire, he is saying who he claims misrepresented him, so that is okay. Now let's move on.

The Hon. M.L.J. HAMILTON-SMITH: They do not like it. They like to rewrite history. The member for Heysen wrongly claimed that, after the 2010 election—an interesting election, one that probably could not have been lost—I came to her office and said two things: one was that all the policies she took to the election were policies I had written, and the second thing she claimed was that I had suggested to her that she should step aside as leader. Both those things misrepresent the truth. What in fact happened, by the member for Heysen's own explanation, was that she sacked the member for Goyder as deputy leader and tried to impose on the party the member for Davenport, the Hon. Iain Evans, an imposition that the party room was not prepared to accept.

The SPEAKER: And what do you say the true situation was?

The Hon. M.L.J. HAMILTON-SMITH: My point was that the true conversation that I engaged in with the member for Heysen was after I had successfully won the deputy leadership in a contest with the member for Davenport. In fact, the conversation was not really about the member for Heysen resigning. It was actually more about the hissy fit that followed my election as deputy leader and the absolute pantomime over a week, where it was pretty obvious she wanted me to resign, which in effect I did, to make way for the member for MacKillop. Half the party room did not turn up for the member for MacKillop's election. They are the facts of what occurred, and she completely misrepresented the truth.

The SPEAKER: The personal explanation is over. The Deputy Premier.