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Legislative Council - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2009-10-28 Daily Xml
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ALP STATE CONVENTION

The Hon. B.V. FINNIGAN (15:33): Poor old Robert Lawson. Come February the writs will be issued and his career will be finished, while Michael Atkinson will still be Attorney-General whether or not he likes it.

The ACTING PRESIDENT (Hon. J.S.L. Dawkins): The honourable member will refer to the Attorney-General by his proper title.

The Hon. B.V. FINNIGAN: I just referred to him as the Attorney-General.

The ACTING PRESIDENT: It is the Hon. Michael Atkinson.

The Hon. B.V. FINNIGAN: On the weekend, the Labor Party held its annual state convention at which we finalised our platform for the next election. The platform will ensure Labor's commitment to continued fiscal and economic responsibility and to providing the best health care/education system, a safe community and ensuring that our infrastructure needs are met into the future. Preselection also happened at that state convention, and at the next election I will have the honour to represent Labor for the Legislative Council. I congratulate the other nominees who were also preselected: the Hon. Paul Holloway, the Hon. John Gazzola and the Hon. Gail Gago.

I particularly congratulate Mr Tung Ngo, who has been preselected as a Labor candidate, and he is indeed my assistant of relatively recent months. I think it is a matter of great pride that Mr Ngo will be one of the first Vietnamese-born Australian candidates—I think probably the first—to be a candidate for a major political party and, if successful, certainly the first Vietnamese-born Australian to be elected to a parliament in Australia.

He has a long history of involvement with local government in the City of Port Adelaide Enfield, including a term as deputy mayor, and he continues to be a councillor today. He is also involved in the community in other ways, including in the St Vincent de Paul Society. Certainly, I take pride in the fact that the Labor Party has selected for the first time a Vietnamese-born Australian as a candidate for office in parliament, and I look forward to working with Mr Ngo, although I think Mr Tung is the proper order.

The Hon. T.J. Stephens interjecting:

The Hon. B.V. FINNIGAN: I look forward to working with him to try to secure an election victory in March.

Members interjecting:

The ACTING PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. B.V. FINNIGAN: The Hon. Mr Stephens shows his ignorance—

The Hon. T.J. Stephens interjecting:

The ACTING PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. B.V. FINNIGAN: As with Mr Ban Ki-moon and the names of some people from South-East Asia, the first name actually goes last, so it would be Mr Tung and not Mr Ngo, technically speaking.

I put on the record today that, following the events at the weekend, the Hon. Mr Lucas has egg all over his face because he has been continually making reference to what is happening in the Labor Party. Apparently, he has had nothing better to talk about over recent months. On Wednesday 17 June, he spent some time talking about me, saying that I wanted to become President of the upper house, on the basis that I had a copy of standing orders I had borrowed from the Secretary of the Budget and Finance Committee. Apparently, that was his proof on that occasion.

Not a month later, on 15 July, he said that I was trying to unseat the Leader of the Government, the Hon. Mr Holloway, when, of course, the Hon. Mr Holloway is a Labor candidate at the next election. I am very pleased to be a candidate with him, and I hope to serve with him after the election if we win the support of the South Australian people. On 22 October, the Hon. Mr Lucas was wrong again when he said that the Hon. Gail Gago would be relegated on the ticket. He also made reference to Tung Ngo being preselected and said that, if successful, it might help 'Finnigan'—that is, me—with future caucus votes.

It is very interesting that the only thing the Hon. Mr Lucas—the shadow minister for finance, the man who is supposed to make all the figures add up—has to talk about is which Labor members will hold which government positions after the election and who will be No. 5 on the Legislative Council ticket for the ALP on the basis that Labor will, in fact, win five positions. The Hon. Mr Lucas has such confidence in his new leader, Mrs Redmond, that he has nothing better to talk about than which Labor members will hold which government positions and speculate that Labor will win five positions at the next election. These are the honourable members who are relying on the Hon. Mr Lucas to get them over the line come March, and here he is publicly talking about the Labor Party being victorious.

Time expired.

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