Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Northern Australia and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

That is the point. He expresses total ignorance as to what is happening in the Northern Territory about statehood. He is not aware, does not understand and has no interest in the operations of the Northern Territory Statehood Steering Committee. Whether or not you agree with the prospect of statehood, in the Northern Territory they are undertaking a very broad ranging community consultation and getting an expression of views from people—unlike the member for Lowe, who is keen to express his own view in this place about the rights and interests of the people of the Northern Territory in a way which I would not about the rights and interests of the people in New South Wales. It is inappropriate behaviour on his behalf, as far as I am concerned.

Secondly, in the case of the member for Solomon, he ought to know better. He actually lives in Darwin. You would expect him to express a view which supports the views which are currently being discussed by the people of the Northern Territory—that is, that there is an active process of participation by the people of the Northern Territory in a discussion about statehood. The only recommendation of this committee report says that the Commonwealth should do something about it. That is not a bad view to express. The committee recommends that the Australian government updates and refines its position on Northern Territory statehood and recommences work on unresolved federal issues. In paragraphs 3.59 to 3.62, this report says that the Commonwealth should take an active role in trying to isolate those issues of contention and have discussions with the community of the Northern Territory, through the Northern Territory government, about those issues and try to find some resolution to them—not in the way that has been expressed by the member for Lowe or, indeed, by the member for Solomon. Well, what do you say about him, frankly?

See this speech in context