Labor Party

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (15:46): I rise to talk about the arrogance of the Weatherill government, Premier Weatherill and his ministers in relation to a series of issues relating to the community and to the parliament and, in particular, to the Legislative Council.

The arrogance of treasurer Koutsantonis, for example, in relation to the ESL has been evident to anyone. Anyone who has expressed any concern about the impact of the ESL has been treated in an arrogant and dismissive fashion by Mr Koutsantonis. For example, when CFS volunteers complained about the impact on them, he dismissively referred, on Channel 7, to this issue by saying, 'Who is really worried about this? Thousands of people will line up to replace those who might not continue as CFS volunteers.' That was the attitude adopted by the Mr Koutsantonis. The ESL, as I have indicated before, is a political carcass hanging around Mr Koutsantonis's neck and, no matter how hard he tries, the political stench will remain with him from between now and up until the next election in 2018.

The arrogance of other ministers is well known. Minister Rau, minister Gago, minister Hunter and others and, before that, minister Atkinson (now Speaker Atkinson) have engaged in a relentless attack on the Legislative Council as an institution and on Legislative Councillors as individuals. There have been many references to comparing members of the Legislative Council to the bar room scene from Star Wars and other unflattering descriptions as well.

The arrogance of minister Hunter and minister Gago has been evident for many years now in this chamber, in particular during question time. We have seen minister Hunter's dismissive, patronising arrogance towards individual members of the Legislative Council when difficult questions are put to him. We have seen the arrogance of minister Gago, for example, raised again yesterday when the Liberal Party highlighted the fact that a question had been asked about Mr Lance Worrall's employment back on 7 May and that an answer had been prepared for the minister on 8 May and the minister arrogantly decided not to provide that answer to the parliament until it was leaked to the opposition, and it was highlighted in question time yesterday.

We have seen the arrogance of ministers Gago and Hunter in refusing to answer not just the Worrall question but literally dozens and dozens, possibly hundreds, of other questions without notice during question time unless further pursued. Some members have waited years and have still not received replies to questions in relation to particular issues. We have seen the arrogance of the ministers refusing to answer more than 3,000 questions on notice, some for more than 10 years. The arrogance of the ministers and this government towards the Legislative Council as an institution and individual members sadly knows no bounds.

There has been great concern expressed from the community and the parliament, but now from within the Labor Party, on the left of the Labor Party, about minister Gago's performance. The fact, for example, that her own department has now leaked confidential briefing notes that have been provided to the minister, such as the one that was placed on the record yesterday, is an indication that she has lost the faith of her own department in terms of her performance.

There is also significant division, as we know, with the left faction of the Labor caucus. We saw that in the exchange earlier this year, which was highlighted, between the Hon. Mr Gazzola and the Hon. Mr Maher, when the Hon. Mr Gazzola dismissively referred to the Hon. Mr Maher as part of the new left where attributes such as loyalty were no longer attributes that you could associate with the left of the Labor Party.

We are advised that minister Gago has now been told that she has reached her political use by date and she has been told that she will leave the ministry by no later than March or April of next year. That is because her 13 years will be up. She started service on 9 February 2002. At that time she will be eligible for voluntary retirement, should she choose to take voluntary retirement after she loses the ministry.

The deal—the fix is in that the Hon. Mr Maher is going to come in and take over as a minister from the Hon. Ms Gago. That particular model has worked well for the Labor Party, hasn't it, in the past? One remembers the Hon. Mr Holloway being told that he had to resign, and the Hon. Mr  Finnigan took over as a minister, and we know how well that worked for the Labor Party. The rumours are that the early favourite to replace Ms Gago was Simon Blewett, but his star has waned and there is now a proposal or pressure to find a female left union representative to replace Ms Gago when she goes.