VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING (COMMONWEALTH POWERS) BILL 2011 [5.24 p.m.] Mr FERGUSON (Bass) – Mr Deputy Speaker, I will be leading the debate on this bill on behalf of the Opposition and I thank the minister for his second reading speech.
Undemocratic “Charter of Rights” killed off
In the Legislative Council today, the Government quietly killed off Lara Gidding’s major law reform policy for a Charter of Rights. Long-time anti-Charter protagonist and Leader of the Government in the Legislative Council, Doug Parkinson, appeared to take great pleasure in all but declaring the Charter of Rights dead.
Brenton Best apology
I have today received a letter from Brenton Best in which he sincerely apologises for his false and baseless claims in Parliament on the 7th July that I had organised or attended so-called “gay hate” rallies on the North West coast. I accept Mr Best’s apology, and will be taking no further action on this [...]
The Brenton Best affair
I’ve today announced that the environment in which to debate marriage has turned toxic; and that I won’t be participating in the scheduled debate on revising the definition of marriage. UTAS have behaved impeccably in proposing the debate. However, recent behaviour of some of our political leaders together with the actions of the same-sex lobby to refer [...]
Some reflections on the Labor smear
In 2003 the state labor government’s Judy Jackson introduced a proposal to amend the Adoption Act which would have allowed singles and same sex couples to adopt children. The Tasmanian Family Institute was formed in response to the failure by the state government’s main adviser, the Tasmanian Law Reform Institute, to properly take account of [...]
