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

The core issue is, of course, how communities are dealt with by a government in Canberra seeking insight, seeking the best members of a community to serve on boards and to help the government make insightful decisions. We understand the importance of doing that. We understand the importance of the service made by members of area consultative committees. We understand the value that they brought to the table and we understand, too, the disgraceful way in which that trust was taken by a government hell-bent on shovelling as much pork as it could into 10 seats—the devil take the hindmost. All you wished to do was to win votes, to create a political footprint for yourself and to use the good name of people on ACCs to cover your bad work, your bad public administration and, what is more, your bad intentions of dressing up a pork-barrelling exercise as being allegedly on behalf of the community. Do we thank them? Yes, we do.

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