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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2022-02-09 Daily Xml
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Parliamentary Procedure

Sittings and Business

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (19:57): I move:

That Notices of Motion: Private Business, Nos 5, 6 and 7 be postponed and taken into account after all remaining Notices of Motion: Private Business.

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: I have been advised by the independent umpire that others can speak to the motion moved by the Hon. Mr Maher.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (19:59): This attempt is an absolute disgrace. This chamber was brought back by a vote of the Labor Party and the crossbenchers to sit this particular sitting week. We are all here to debate private members' motions, or motions moved not as government business but as private members. We now have a thinly disguised endeavour by the Australian Labor Party to shut up Liberal members of parliament from being able to speak to various motions that they have moved. We have four motions which have been moved amongst about 30 or 40 motions that members have moved.

So we have a situation where this would be unprecedented, where, having given notice of motion for private members' business, the majority in this chamber, having taken control and saying this whole week is going to be private members' business, all of a sudden want to talk about matters that the Labor Party and maybe one or two members of the crossbench are prepared to talk about. That is not what private members' business has been. Today is private members' day—Wednesday. Tuesday and Thursday is not normally for private members' business but we have a situation where, because the majority last week required us to sit, we are all here.

As members of the government, we spend, in private members' business, as is the right of non-government members, hours and hours getting belted left, right and centre, being criticised left, right and centre—rightly or wrongly as we would see it—from three o'clock on Wednesday afternoon through to midnight on some Wednesday evenings, and that is the entitlement of private members. That is what private members' business is about. Members can move their motion, they have an entitlement to be heard and to be able to move their particular motions. It would be unprecedented for this chamber to go down the lead of this Leader of the Opposition and support a situation where, in an unprecedented fashion, members are not entitled to move their private members' motions.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: It is not a question of chance. There is an entitlement in terms of the order. The reason is that the Leader of the Opposition is petrified of what is going to come in relation to Labor MPs' abuse of staff within their offices. This is an attempt by the Leader of the Opposition to prevent the genuine issues of abuse accusations against Labor MPs in relation to bullying and harassment in offices from being ventilated and discussed.

It is an abuse by the Leader of the Opposition and the Labor Party, and indeed anybody, to try to stop a member of this chamber in private members' business from being able to raise issues on behalf of people within the Labor Party, staff of Labor MPs, friends and colleagues and family of staff in Labor MPs' offices who want their issues ventilated in this chamber.

If people vote to vote down and to stop the precedent, to prevent the issues from being raised today in private members' business, as they should be raised, as we are entitled to raise them, if it is to be a majority, they will be part of stifling the opportunity for staffers within Labor offices, for their family, for their friends, for their worried colleagues and others to raise issues of abuse, bullying or harassment by Labor MPs right across the board. The Leader of the Opposition is cleverly trying to stop those issues from being ventilated today or tonight.

The Leader of the Opposition and the crossbenchers wanted private members' business all of this week, and all yesterday there was the opportunity for bills to be moved and criticisms to be made of the government about supposed COVID-19 problems in relation to a whole variety of things. There are other motions on the Notice Paper for tonight after the four Liberal Party motions that have been moved amongst 30 or 40 motions that people have moved. Trust me, the vast majority of those will be critical of the Liberal government and Liberal MPs and the like.

We take our fair cop, as it is the right of private members in this chamber to be critical of the government of the day, but as private members we are also entitled to move motions to be critical of Labor MPs who, in my view, have harassed and bullied their staff over many, many years, and it is about time someone was able to speak out on their behalf in this chamber and raise their genuine concerns.

I can understand the Labor Party wanting to shut it up but, trust me, if crossbenchers are going to shut up staff members who want to raise issues in relation to bullying and harassment against Labor MPs, and if crossbenchers are going to hop into bed, in the political sense, with the Labor Party to stifle the voices of those who have been bullied and harassed after all the platitudes we have heard over the last 12 to 18 months about harassment in the workplace, about bullying, about what needs to be done—there is a motion here that is going to highlight the genuine concerns of staff against Labor MPs right across the board about bullying and harassment.

Members in this chamber are going to try to shut down a debate about those sorts of issues because it is inconvenient and it does not happen to be a criticism of a Liberal member or a crossbench member or a member of another house. However, because it happens to be criticism of a member of the Labor Party, all of a sudden we are going to be asked to shut it down, close it off, on the basis that we are not going to listen to the concerns of staff members within Labor offices who are crying out to have their stories told, who are crying out to actually be able to raise the concerns.

Because the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Malinauskas, and Mr Maher in this chamber, and other Labor MPs will not do anything on their behalf in relation to the genuine concerns that they are raising, then woe betide crossbench members if they are going to hop into the political bed with the Labor Party on this tawdry attempt to shut down a genuine chance—as is our right—to speak out on behalf of staff within Labor offices to highlight the issues of bullying and harassment.

Labor MPs will not speak out and raise their issues. Trust me, they want to sweep them under the carpet. They do not want these issues ventilated or aired in any particular way. So in this particular climate—with a national debate going on in Canberra about bullying and harassment by the power imbalance that we see between members of parliament and their staff—when we have an opportunity to debate these particular issues, to have the Labor Party trying to get through this house this evening a motion with the support of some crossbenchers to shut it down and to prevent this sort of a debate is a disgrace. I can assure the Leader of the Opposition and others that our voices will be heard loud and clear on behalf of the long-suffering staff within Labor MPs' offices.

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Members, at this point we are working our way through the standing orders, and I refer members to standing order 68:

When the Business of the Day is called on by the Clerk, any Member in charge of any Order of the Day which appears on the Notice Paper or which may have lapsed therefrom, may move, without notice, that such Order be postponed, discharged, or revived for a future day, as the case may be; but no discussion or amendment shall be allowed on such motions.

It actually relies on the member in charge of the motion. It would appear, the Hon. Mr Maher, that that attempt is out of order at this point, but please bear with us. Then we go to standing order 166:

Whenever a Notice of Motion is called on, or an Order of the Day is read, the Member in charge of the business in question, or entitled to preaudience thereon, shall be held to be in possession of the House, if the Member desires to speak.

It would seem that the member in charge of the motion has the right to either adjourn it or continue. It being a notice, the Hon. Mr Lucas needs to move it.

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