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Legislative Council - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-04-10 Daily Xml
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LABOR PARTY

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (15:26): I rise, as I have spoken before in this place, about the damage being done to South Australian families and the South Australian economy by the ongoing division and disunity within the Labor Party and the Labor government in South Australia. As I referenced before, we have seen a series of high profile disagreements between minister O'Brien and the part-time Treasurer (current Premier Weatherill) on a number of issues differences of opinion, Mr President, between your good self and the Premier in relation to policy for access of media to parliament and the Legislative Council; and differences of opinion with Labor caucus members protesting against Labor policy positions on the steps of Parliament House.

Those divisions and disunity sadly continue for South Australian families, as I said. We have seen over the last three weeks a continuing series of highly placed cabinet leaks seeking to undermine the position of the part-time Treasurer and Premier Weatherill in relation to his position of supposed authority in the cabinet. As I said three weeks ago and I say again, if you cannot run yourselves as a party, you cannot be expected to run the business of running South Australia. Increasingly, South Australian families are waking up to that fact.

What we have seen in the last few weeks is another indication of the ongoing division and disunity within the party in the formulation of the Legislative Council ticket for the 2014 election. What we have seen is the right faction within the Labor Party flexing its collective muscles, snubbing their noses at the people of South Australia and installing their people in the favoured No. 1 and 3 positions on the Legislative Council ticket.

We have that star of the former Labor cabinet, that luminary of the Legislative Council, the Hon. Russell Wortley, to lead the Legislative Council ticket for the Labor Party with all the formidable charisma that he can bring to bear in harnessing the votes of South Australians. The Hon. Jay Weatherill's very close friend and supporter, minister Ian Hunter, has been relegated to position No. 2 behind the Hon. Mr Wortley. Whether Mr Wortley, a là Mr Farrell, could be prevailed upon to—

The PRESIDENT: Senator Farrell.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: —voluntarily give up his ticket position in the interests of Senator Wong in that case or in this case minister Hunter, only time will tell. I would not be holding my breath if I know the Hon. Mr Wortley in relation to these issues.

The more critical issue in terms of the ongoing division and disunity in the party is that the unknown (to the wider South Australian community) Labor staffer, Mr Tung Ngo, has been installed in the No. 3 position because he is a member of the Labor right, ahead of the self-anointed, chest-beating future Labor star and luminary in the Legislative Council, the Hon. Mr Kyam Maher, the former state secretary of the Labor Party and, as I said, self-appointed rising star in the Legislative Council. He has been relegated to the No. 4 position in the Legislative Council, and he is furious at being relegated to No. 4—as he would put it, and as his supporters in the left would put it—with a relatively unknown member of the right, a staffer for the one of the ministers, Mr Ngo, being put into the No. 3 position.

You have a sitting Labor member of the Legislative Council being relegated to the No. 4 position, you have a sitting minister being relegated to the No. 2 position and you have a ticket being led by the Hon. Mr Wortley—enough said about that. I am sure that, in the period leading up to March 2014, the people of South Australia will be reminded of all the many wonderful virtues and attributes that the minister brought to his brief fling in the ministry, his brief fling in terms of his command of the particular portfolio and his wonderful travels as he visited the cemeteries of Europe as a farewell visit on behalf of the South Australian taxpayers. We are left with a position where clearly the right of the Labor Party do not hold the Hon. Mr Maher in very high esteem—they dumped him to No. 4 on the ticket.

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