Today in parliament question time I asked two questions. One was ruled out of order and the other is below. I was the second speaker in our motion against the Chief Minister for not governing for Territorians but for his own interests. Workplace Bullying Motion Result Mr VOWLES to CHIEF MINISTER: You have persistently denied that the member for Greatorex bullied and harassed the member for Namatjira, but last night, you supported a motion to discipline the member for Greatorex for his unacceptable behaviour. Is that not an admission that your original denials that the member for Namatjira was abused did not reflect what actually happened? What does that say about your honesty? ANSWER Madam Speaker, it is interesting when you hear these questions. The first answer I gave to the Leader of the Opposition was about our plans. The second answer I gave to the member for Daly was about our plans around the gas industry and fracking and addressing community concerns, but the two questions that have come have been all internal matters, looking at us, rather than even looking at themselves. Perhaps they could even spend some time developing policy for themselves. Let us have a look at bullying, member for Johnston. We all understand bullying. We passed a motion last night that no-one supports bullying, particularly around women, but we do not support bullying of any forms against anybody, in parliament, the public service or in the broader community. But I will give some examples of bullying. There is an Independent candidate running for the seat of Blain, by the name of Mr Cranitch, who has accused the Leader of the Opposition of bullying him against running as a candidate in Blain. That accusation of bullying by the AEU official, who is running as a political candidate, against the Leader of the Opposition has gone unanswered. I wonder why the Leader of the Opposition will not respond to that bullying campaign. In fact, yesterday there was a claim in the NT News by Mr Cranitch complaining about your own electoral officer who was allegedly cyber bullying Mr Cranitch. I have not seen you come into his Chamber and make a response to that claim. If you want to talk about bad behaviour, bullying, and poor performance, let us have a look at what happened last year in this Chamber. In 2013, Labor members were thrown out of parliament 10 times for bad behaviour. If you start talking about bullying and bad behaviour you have to ask what is going on. In 2014, this year so far, we have only have nine days of sittings, including today. Already, Labor members have been thrown out of the Chamber three times for bad behaviour. If I recall, I am pretty sure the Leader of the Opposition was thrown out of parliament for 24 hours, which was the first time in 11 years. When you talk about bad behaviour and bullying, you have to ask why they do not reflect on themselves about it ... Mr GUNNER: A point of order, Madam Speaker! Standing Order 113: relevance. Last night, the Chief Minister voted to discipline the member for Greatorex. What form has that discipline taken? Madam SPEAKER: Chief Minister, you have the call. There is no point of order. Mr GILES: Thank you, Madam Speaker. The member for Greatorex has been disciplined. He offered an apology and I have accepted that apology. Let us look at 2012. On Wednesday, 28 November, the Leader of the Opposition called the Deputy Speaker, the member for Daly, in his Chair as Deputy Speaker while he was chairing and committee, a grub. Talk about a reflection on the Chair in this parliament! That is disgraceful behaviour. If you want to have a look at bullying and bad behaviour, have a look at the way you operate yourselves, come up with some policies, re-join your divided collective of eight over there, and see if you can come up with better initiatives and policies for the future of the Territory.
Posted on: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 06:13:42 +0000
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