Tuesday 26 November
Hansard of the Legislative Council

MOTION
 Youth Unemployment in Tasmania

[4.09 p.m.]
Mr FINCH (Rosevears) - Mr President, I too appreciate this motion.  I was disappointed in the amendments from the Government.  In the 18 years I have been here I have never seen this sort of tactic.  I have seen other tactics.  I have seen where advice has come from the other place and from advisers who do not understand how this place works.  They think it is all about the bearpit; it is pointscoring -

We are not about that.  We are above that.  This is about your language, strength of the debate, strength of the points you can make, the research you do, what you want to bring to the table to try to influence the way people think by the way we think collectively, the ideas we might put forward to the Government.  They might have a little brain cell that goes, 'Oh, yes, bang! That's not a bad idea.  We might make that our own.'

From the get-go, we could see it was a misreading of the situation - as has been proven, by what members think here, in the way we dealt with the amendments.  I thought it was embarrassing for the Government to advance this material and for it to be dealt with as it should have been dealt with. 

Then just to be a bit more positive, I appreciated very much listening to the contribution by all members to the debate and the way we conducted ourselves, except for one unedifying incident at lunchtime when the member was treated, I thought, with aggression and assertiveness.  That sort of behaviour is uncalled for in this Chamber.

I have not witnessed it before, here, and I trust I will not witness it again.  However, I think it was a measure of the astuteness of the member for Elwick that he conducted himself properly.

What a terrific debate, what a terrific discussion to have.  What an issue we have on our hands that we need to be aware of and concerned about, and this was the opportunity for that discussion.  For the Leader, there is nothing in the amendments put forward that you could not have delivered in your response to the members' presentation, to give us the Government's view - present it, tell us, inform us.  Let us know what is going on without this pointscoring opportunity, which I think backfired.

I support the motion.