House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-10-28 Daily Xml

Contents

LAW AND ORDER ISSUES POSTCARD

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg) (15:10): My question is to the Attorney-General. In response to the postcard to which the Attorney-General said yesterday the response have been 'so overwhelming', can the Attorney-General tell the house how many responses have been received and why haven't they been forwarded to the Leader of the Opposition?

The SPEAKER: I do not think the Attorney—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! I do not think the Attorney has any responsibility. I have not seen the card, but I do not think the Attorney is on it. But if the Attorney wants to respond—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.J. ATKINSON (Croydon—Attorney-General, Minister for Justice, Minister for Multicultural Affairs, Minister for Veterans' Affairs) (15:11): Clearly, the Leader of the Opposition has lost control of the tactics of the parliamentary Liberal Party today. The situation is that it is a fact, an irrefutable fact on Hansard, that the parliamentary Liberal Party voted against the recidivist youth offenders provision—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.J. ATKINSON: —in the Young Offenders Act.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.J. ATKINSON: Isobel Redmond wanted to keep the Gang of 49 out of detention, or if they went into detention—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.J. ATKINSON: —Isobel Redmond wanted them to serve as little time as possible.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Ms CHAPMAN: Mr Speaker, the question was very specific: how many and why haven't you handed them on to the Leader of the Opposition?

The SPEAKER: The Attorney-General.

The Hon. M.J. ATKINSON: All Isobel Redmond wants to do is hug the Gang of 49, not put them in detention.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Ms CHAPMAN: Point of order, Mr Speaker: I ask that you rule—

The SPEAKER: The Attorney I think has completed his answer—the Attorney-General.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.J. ATKINSON: The leaflet or card, distributed by the Australian Labor Party, is entirely factual; it is entirely correct in its reporting—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.J. ATKINSON: —and I am sure that the Australian Labor Party will be willing to share the responses with the Leader of the Opposition.