Don Randall (Canning, Liberal Party, Shadow Cabinet Secretary) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, congratulations to you. There is a saying: what is the use of having power if you can’t abuse it? And that is what has happened in this case. The Labor Party have regained power and have decided, at their very first attempt in this House, to abuse the power that has been bestowed on them through this House. As the member for Casey said earlier, this is quite clearly a stunt. We know who the creators of this stunt are: they are the member for Chifley, who lives in Sydney, and the member for Grayndler, who lives in Sydney too. Those of us who are from the rest of Australia know a little bit about the difference between flying from Sydney—half an hour—and flying from Perth, which is a two-day turnaround.

People ask me why my wife is not seen in Canberra more often to support me. She was here today for the first time in two years. The reason is that she runs a small business and a two-day turnaround is something that she cannot afford. Check the parliamentary record. My wife and my children do not come to Canberra because of the two-day turnaround.

At the end of the day, I am a person who likes to represent my electorate and represent the constituents. The electorate office on a Friday is almost like a doctor’s surgery. I am sure many members who do their job sufficiently have the same experience. People come in every half an hour or every 15 minutes and you have to just bowl over their issues one after the other. The issues are very important to them, such as knee reconstructions and all the other things they come to you about. They think you can help whether you can or not. It is important that you interact with the people. I will go to their houses if I have to.

The fact is that the government are not serious about this. The extra time that they are after can be found in the four days. We know that. The member for O’Connor provides a fair bit of colour and light, but Wilson is quite correct when he constructs the four-day extra time that you are seeking. This is all about tying up people as a stunt, on behalf of the now government, so that they cannot return to their electorates.

It is true that the first community cabinet came to Canning. I had to have a bit of a giggle about it because when I made some inquiries and made a comment in the media about not being invited, as it is my electorate, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s chief of staff eventually rang me and said, ‘Oh, you can come.’ I said, ‘That’s good; I’ll come.’ She said, ‘I’ll get back to you by Wednesday and we’ll organise the details and make sure you are there.’ I never heard from her again. I can understand that. A number of people that came to me from the electorate said, ‘We registered. We wanted to go and we didn’t get a guernsey. We wanted to ask questions.’ Chum Taylor, a former champion speedway rider, went along and asked Mr Rudd about pensions. I heard from those who were there—and I read in the media—that he did not answer the question. It is all smoke and mirrors. It is just spin. At the end of the day, it is about trying to look good on this issue.

The Friday sitting is going to be something that will eventually fail. I predict that this will fail. Look at the people who are here, making up the quorum tonight. They are either the rejected from the past or the brand new. We have ‘Scooter’ from the electorate of Leichhardt over here who wants to have POETS day every Thursday so that he can get back to Cairns in time. Where is Entsch when you need him—a man of substance? At the end of the day, Scooter from Leichhardt has belled the cat on this issue and we know that the government are going to be keeping this place together with the new and the rejected on the back bench. The ministers are probably at home now, sleeping and getting ready for their day tomorrow, and you are being used up on the back bench. You should feel pretty bad about it.

There are only four members of the House of Representatives from the Labor Party in Western Australia and one of them sits in the House now. I congratulate him on his election. But the member for Brand should know as well as anyone that we get special circumstances to turn around from Western Australia. We can actually break our journey because it is considered so long. This affects the member for Perth, the brand new member for Fremantle, the member for Brand and the member for Hasluck. She is going to need to be back in her electorate. She got away with it this time but she might not get away with it every time. There is going to be a redistribution. Who will know? In some respects, this is a punishment for Western Australia for having done so well at the last election. You are going to do what you can to keep the Western Australian members in Canberra because you have so few of them on your side.

This is an absolute stunt that is going to backfire on the Labor Party. The electorate will wise up to it shortly and realise that the government are determined to keep you here. I object to the fact that people think we are not working if we are not in Canberra. I consider that when I am in my electorate I work much harder for and on behalf of the people who put me there. This insinuation that if you are not in Canberra you are not working is quite fatuous and it should be rejected, expunged and exposed for what it really is—a stunt.

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