Matters of Interest

Liberal Party

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (17:05): I rise today to inform you that not all is well in the Liberal Party. Their leader is rapidly losing control. Recently, the Leader of the Opposition, the member for Dunstan, Steven Marshall, said in a radio interview that he does not think there is any role for state politics in local government. He went as far as saying that for a state MP to even talk about a council candidate doing a good job was, and I quote, 'I don't think it's a good development.'

Then, what did his divided renegade team immediately set out about doing? They set out about making a mockery of him and any last skerrick of authority that he might have had left. Former opposition leader and member for Heysen, Isobel Redmond, cemented her reputation as a dangerous loose cannon with a recent extraordinary outburst heavily criticising the Lord Mayor, which followed her unprovoked and shameful outburst against the Electoral Commissioner. Adding to this is her murky involvement in the Adelaide Hills council elections as revealed in InDaily today.

Right after that, we saw the member for Finniss use parliamentary privilege to insert himself into local government elections. In addition, his use of physical force and intimidation after a recent vote in the House of Assembly demonstrated how low the opposition has sunk. That he said or did something ridiculous that embarrasses his leader and colleagues would come as no surprise to anyone in this parliament, maybe that is why the Chris Pyne faction is now taking a great interest in the Finniss branch of the Liberal Party. A few weeks ago the Hon. David Ridgway, who is usually much better than this, used parliamentary privilege to mount a cowardly attack on a candidate for local government elections—

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway: He used his mayoral position—

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: —and the basis for this attack—

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway: —to promote a racist candidate in the state election. A racist candidate.

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: —is who this person is related to.

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Ridgway is called to order.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: To irrelevantly bring in a person's family members and their personal situation as part of the debate in this place is a very low act, and I am sure on reflection the Hon. David Ridgway would likely concede that using defenceless family members to score political points is not a development that we would like to see continue or escalate in this chamber.

The PRESIDENT: Order! There is a point of order. The Hon. Mr Maher can you sit down? The Hon. Ms Vincent.

The Hon. K.L. VINCENT: Thank you. Whilst I, like many other members I am sure, am rather tired of this tirade between the two parties, I may not agree with what you say, but I defend to the death your right to say it, and I can't hear the Hon. Mr Maher.

The PRESIDENT: Good point of order. Mr Maher can you sit down for a minute. I do not think it is appropriate while the Hon. Mr Maher is giving a speech for there to be any reference about a 'racist' or whatever to any person who cannot defend themselves in this parliament. The Hon. Mr Maher can continue.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: Mr President, all party politics aside, the Hon. David Ridgway's recent outburst against family members reflects poorly on him and on his party. That so many members of the Liberal Party have blatantly and openly defied their leader just shows that he has lost control. The Leader of the Opposition needs to answer these questions: did he know his colleagues were to make these attacks on local government candidates after he had effectively forbidden them to do so, before they made them? If not, what has he done about it since then? Does he think it is appropriate to use parliamentary privilege in this way and, if he does not, what is he going to do about? Directly in response to the member for Heysen's most recent outburst, the Leader of the Opposition said on radio:

I wasn't in the chamber at the time and I haven't read the Hansard and look quite frankly it's dangerous to comment outside of parliament on issues raised so I won't be doing that.

It is a stunning admission that he thinks it would be dangerous to comment on the matters that were raised in parliament. On the same matter, when he was asked by a television reporter, 'Did you talk to Isobel Redmond about it?', the Leader of the Opposition answered with the ultimate cop-out, 'Oh, look, I'm not sure whether I talked to Isobel or not.'

What is being displayed here is not leadership, it is squibbing it. It is not just a few renegade MPs causing the Leader of the Opposition plenty of grief: it is many members of his own front bench team. The Hon. Stephen Wade recently set up his leader in the most appalling manner when he passed on incorrect information that had massive consequences for a family during a difficult time, without trying to do anything to verify the false allegations.

I do not have the time now, but I will speak about that issue at much greater length in the near future. I understand from the Liberal Party that the Hon. Stephen Wade is now effectively on probation. One more mistake and it will not be a further demotion in shadow cabinet—he will be out of shadow cabinet altogether.

The highly unusual events in this chamber yesterday, where the Leader of the Opposition was not allowed to ask a single question of his own, shows how divided the Liberal Party is, even in this chamber. We will see with interest what moves are made by the moderate faction of the Liberal Party on the leadership in this chamber in the near future. I see that the Leader of the Opposition has all his supporters here today, which I think is good, and I think you should keep supporting him—he does a reasonable job. All is not well in the Liberal Party, and I think the state deserves a better opposition.