Ms ROSOL (Bass) – Honourable Speaker, today we will be debating a motion that will be two-and-one-quarter lines long, and 36 words long, for a $1.13 billion project that’s been recommended against proceeding by everyone who has examined it. In the face of all that expert advice, the government think they know better. They think that they can attempt to strong-arm this through the parliament today. This is an insult. I don’t think I’m the only one who is outraged and insulted by this. I was not elected to be in here as a planning expert. That is not my area of knowledge and expertise. Yet, today I’m asked to vote on a motion about a project that requires a high degree of planning requirements. It’s got planning processes that must be gone through. There are all sorts of details in this project and planned stadium that we are supposed to just wave through with a brief motion today.
What an insult. What an insult to the experts who have done the research and who have assessed the project. What an insult to us, in here, that we are expected to just do the government’s bidding and wave something through.
I just want to respond to Labor’s comment that we don’t go into Committee for anything except amendments. That’s already been addressed by Ms Johnston, but there are processes that can be used when debating orders, and that is the idea of a disallowable instrument. We can’t amend an order, but it’s not as simple as: it must be a ‘yes’ or it must be a ‘no.’ There are different parts that can be allowed or disallowed within an order. We deserve the right to take this order into a Committee of the House, examine it in detail, go through it carefully, and decide on each part of that order, whether it should be in there or not. This government want this project approved with light regulation, with a planning order that’s light. We should at least be scrutinising the order, closely examining it.
I support this motion and I support as much scrutiny as we can possibly have for this order and for a stadium that is not going to be good for our state.
