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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-04-29 Daily Xml
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MATTERS OF INTEREST

LIBERAL PARTY

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY (15:22): I rise today to make some observations on a matter of considerable interest not only to those in this chamber but also to the people of South Australia—that is, the difficulty the Liberal Party has, in both the federal and state arenas, to persuade the electorate that it has any application whatsoever and any relevance whatsoever to current debate beyond an extraordinary level of negativity or the propounding of a number of ludicrous schemes intended to resuscitate its political future.

First, let us look briefly at the federal arena. I am hard pressed to think of just about any important legislative measure proposed by the Rudd government that has not been greeted by a chorus of negativity on a colossal scale. Despite carping about its size, the coalition eventually supported the initial economic stimulus package that was launched by the Prime Minister last October; since then, we have heard nothing but criticism ranging from the petulant to the vicious.

Frequently, we have heard outright antagonism to initiatives—acknowledged not only by the IMF but also by many Western democracies as one of the best stimulus packages in the world—to protect Australia from the full impact of the global economic crisis. These initiatives include the second stimulus package, subsidies for the car industry, bank guarantees to protect families' savings, employment and transition programs and the recently announced national broadband scheme.

The Hon. T.J. Stephens interjecting:

The ACTING PRESIDENT (Hon. J.S.L. Dawkins): The Hon. Terry Stephens will cease interjecting.

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY: They hate hearing the truth, Mr Acting President. What is the result of all this negativity? Plummeting approval ratings. The last time I looked at Newspoll—

The Hon. T.J. Stephens interjecting:

The ACTING PRESIDENT: The Hon. Terry Stephens is out of order.

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY: —the hapless Leader of the Opposition was languishing at 18 per cent because the people of Australia want action, not negativity. Let us turn now to the local guardians of the conservative tradition.

I spoke recently about the Liberal Party's extraordinary proposal, if it is elected at the next election, to jettison our proposal for a new hospital on the railway site and its plan to refurbish the Royal Adelaide Hospital. Not content to abandon the changing demographic of our city and our state to an ageing, cramped hospital with numerous and well-documented disadvantages going forward into the future, the Leader of the Opposition cannot explain how it is to be funded. The only expenditure outlined in his policy document is our commitment of $157 million for land works at the site. According to the ABC, he believes the money is irrelevant to the big picture. This is the leader of the party that wants to take over the budgetary reins of this state. 'Trust me,' he says—a very risky proposition, indeed.

But, wait, there is more! There is more of this. Now they want to build a sports stadium at the City West site instead of a hospital. The phrase 'bread and circuses' naturally springs to mind; not to mention the fact that, if elected in 2010, they will not begin work on their stadium until 2013, with the stadium not ready until 2018 or 2022; and not to mention the fact that no sports association wants to have anything to do with this stadium.

The Leader of the Opposition is of the view that Adelaide has lost its mojo. I can tell you that the only mojo that is missing is the Liberal Party's. I do not know where its priorities lie but, clearly, the health and wellbeing of our state is not high among them. Meanwhile, three events over the past few weeks lead us to really have some concerns about where the Liberal Party is going. First of all, a staff member of a previously senior member of this chamber, who is now a backbencher (I will not mention the member's name), has been caught using Twitter in a very inappropriate manner.

Members interjecting:

The ACTING PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY: Then, according to Adelaidenow and the ABC—

Members interjecting:

The ACTING PRESIDENT: Order! Members on my left will remain silent.

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY: —your staffers are now manning a media—

Members interjecting:

The ACTING PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY: —unit to manipulate and skew media polls.

The Hon. T.J. Stephens interjecting:

The ACTING PRESIDENT: Order! The Hon. Terry Stephens will remain silent.

The Hon. R.P. WORTLEY: How desperate can you get—having staffers use government money and resources to manipulate media polls! It really indicates how sensitive they are to their plummeting ratings.

The last one is the disgraceful debacle in the lower house yesterday when the Leader of the Opposition produced forged emails accusing the Labor Party of being involved in some scheme with Scientologists. At the very best, that could be incompetence of a huge magnitude; and, at the worst, it is absolutely dishonest—basic decrepit politics. This is an indication of how desperate the Liberals are and how they have fallen from grace with the people of South Australia.

Time expired.

The Hon. T.J. Stephens: Can you come around, because I need some of that shit for my garden?

The ACTING PRESIDENT: Order! The Hon. Terry Stephens needs to consider his use of language in the chamber.

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS: Sorry, Mr Acting President.

The Hon. C.V. Schaefer: Manure, he meant.

The Hon. T.J. Stephens: Manure; sorry. It was verbal diarrhoea. I need some for my garden.

The ACTING PRESIDENT: Order!

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