Gary Gray (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Development and Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to answer some comments made at the start of this adjournment debate by the member for McPherson, who accused the member for Richmond of a number of shortcomings during the election campaign—not least of which was the mention of the Tweed skate park, which had been promised by the former government. During the election campaign, those present in this chamber will recall the then Deputy Prime Minister showing some skill riding a skateboard, with his hat on back-to-front, to publicly announce that the skate park would not only be funded but was a done deal. The truth of it is: no contract had been signed and no documentation had been concluded by the former government in order to allow that funding to flow. The fault is not that of the member for Richmond; it is the fault of the former Deputy Prime Minister, who was in charge of that program.

The member for McPherson went on to criticise the member for Richmond for promises about the Murwillumbah hospital. I know how hard the Minister for Ageing works, both in her electorate and in her portfolio, and I find those allegations to be not simply unsubstantiated but absolutely and totally unfair. What is worse is that the third allegation refers to the pensions bill, which was deemed by this House to be unconstitutional. I am astonished that those three points would be raised in a debate at the end of a day’s proceedings in an adjournment debate which is normally held in polite terms and is informative, addressing matters more relevant to the electorate and less relevant to such scurrilous mudraking as the member for McPherson demonstrated in this adjournment debate this evening.

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