Danny O’BRIEN (Gippsland South) (17:52): I am happy to get up and speak on this. I just heard the Leader of the House come in and say, ‘What’s this waste of time?’ This is coming from the Leader of the House. What time are we? We are not even at 6 o’clock on the first day of sitting during the week and the government has already run out of ideas. We had one piece of legislation introduced today. We have got two bills this week, one of which is very grandly titled, as the member for Evelyn has indicated, a regulatory reform bill but in fact is just a statute law revision bill that we have a couple of every year, and now the government wants to go on and talk about TAFE.
There are so many things that this Parliament could be talking about on this particular day. For those who are going to say, ‘Oh, why don’t you want to talk about TAFE?’, we did last week. You had a bill, do not forget. They had a bill last week. It is in the other place. If you want to go and talk about that, you can go and listen up there again. But here we are on the very day that regional Victoria should have been hosting the Commonwealth Games. They say, ‘Oh, forget that whole $600 million that we wasted, forget that broken promise that we made to all Victorians and particularly to regional Victorians. That’s just groan factor. You should just move on, you people.’ That is what this Labor government want to do, because they think it is not important, because they burnt another $600 million on that. The one thing that was sporting about that was the big handball to Glasgow: ‘Here, take $200 million. Put on a show for the rest of the world. We don’t want it anymore, because we messed it up.’
Juliana Addison: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, I ask you to consider bringing the speaker back to the procedural motion that we have before us.
The ACTING SPEAKER (Paul Mercurio): I ask you to come back to the procedural motion.
Danny O’BRIEN: I am speaking exactly on why we should not be adjourning this until later this day, because –
Colin Brooks: That’s not the question.
Danny O’BRIEN: It is the question.
Colin Brooks: No, the question is ‘later this day’.
Danny O’BRIEN: That is what I just said, minister at the table. I just said ‘until later this day’. We know exactly what we are debating now: we are debating whether we should adjourn until later this day. That is what I am arguing – on the things that we could be doing and why this does not need to be debated and why this government is wasting the chamber’s time. I know those opposite will say we are wasting the chamber’s time by having this debate. Like I said, it is not even 6 o’clock on Tuesday and the government has run out of ideas. We have had one piece of legislation. Sorry, I tell a lie –
Mary-Anne Thomas: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, the member on his feet is not discussing the motion at hand. The motion at hand is about when the debate should be adjourned to. I ask that you bring him back to that motion. He could express an opinion on that. If he suggests that it is not later this day, what day does he suggest it should be adjourned until?
The ACTING SPEAKER (Paul Mercurio): I ask the Leader of the Nationals to come back to the procedural motion.
Danny O’BRIEN: This is one of the things I find amusing with these procedural motions. The Leader of the House does not speak on them and takes a minute of my time on a point of order. But the question is: if we are to debate what is happening in the chamber, how do we debate it without discussing what should or should not happen? That is exactly what we are doing. We are saying here that this should not be adjourned till later this day, because this is a stunt from the government – a government that has run out of things to talk about. It does not want to talk about the Commonwealth Games; that should have started today. It certainly does not want to talk about corruption. It certainly does not want to talk about what is going on with the Big Build and with the Premier, who has now been found to have been warned about this when she was the minister. These are the things the government –
Colin Brooks: On a point of order, Acting Speaker, the member has been warned on two occasions now not to stray from the very narrow procedural motion that is before the house. He continues to stray from it. These motions are not an opportunity to stray and to talk about anything you want by saying, ‘We don’t think debate should be adjourned till later this day. We think we should talk about all of these other things, and give us the licence to talk about all of these other things,’ when he needs to bring it right back to the particular motion before the house.
The ACTING SPEAKER (Paul Mercurio): The member will come back to the motion. The member’s time has expired.