22 August 2007

Hargreaves rude, Pratt sensitive

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Steve Pratt, liberal MLA and shadow minister for various things, is calling for a committee to be established to examine John Hargreaves’ “contemptuous behaviour”.

Now I’ve got no doubt Hargreaves is a bit of an arrogant bully, but is this the best use of our already overworked MLAs? Or is there a line that has to be drawn over the behaviour of our representatives?

By the way, all this is over some comments he made during a budget estimates committee earlier this year. Does anyone know exactly what he said?

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Gungahlin Al12:56 pm 23 Aug 07

I’m sure Hargreaves adopts this persona of overly overt blokiness deliberately because he thinks it goes down well on his home turf of Tuggeranong…which in its own way says heaps about the contempt he has for the people of his constituency I guess.

Poolroom; Bonfire got 2 compliments in a row. This is a week of records.

Unfortunately given that Canberrans tend to vote on name-recognition, this little contretemps will probably win them both more votes.

LOL, I’m still laughing!!! You’re so random Bonfire!

ps – great comment bonfire, I laughed out loud.

Hargreaves’ actions are inappropriate, if he did indeed act as indicated in this article.

Nonetheless, Pratt is a hysterical wanker. Why doesn’t he just shut up, take it on the chin and get on with some real work? I can’t believe we pay this twat all that money to act like a tantrum throwing schoolchild. Surely there is something more important to do, the guy is a f’ing idiot.

Don’t these guys have to behave according to the public service act, or somthing like that?

It should come as no surprise that Hargreaves has been said to act like a bumptious oaf. Or that the Prattmeister is having a hissy. Or anything else that comes out of the swillbucket that is our Legislative Assembly.

We elected a significant number of monkeys. We should not be surprised when they throw bananas at each other. Ask yourself how many of these people you would pay if it was coming direct from your own wallet and the work really mattered.

You wouldn’t get away with swearing, drinking and yelling at people in most public positions – why should he get to act like that?

What’s interesting though is that the Labor MLA Mick Gentleman has also voiced concerns about this. ABC mentioned a letter he sent to the speaker, as head of the budget estimates committee, concerned about Hargreaves’ behaviour.

The cheese has rights !

A crackerjack observation there, bonfire 😉

apparently he took a slice of cheese from the cheese wheel and put it in a sandwich, when as everyone knows, cheese from the cheese wheel is to be eaten with crackers only.

a special investigative sub-committee needs to be formed to look into future cheesewheel activities.

“contemptuous behaviour”
And painting over the hard work of a community group who spent good money to create a public mural… that would be what? Non contemptuous?

As for accountability, that went out the door the day Labour won the last election, as it did at a Federal level to a large extent. It’s not like anyone made a concious choice to give them a majority, but that’s what has occured.

I understand the term “dickhead” was used along with a number of generally lower grade insults. Steve Pratt has probably heard worse but seems unhappy that they occurred in that particular forum. An Estimates Committee seems to be subject to the same behaviour protocols as a meeting of the Assembly itself.

Actually, what is of most concern in all of this is Hargreaves refusal to answer questions at all during the Estimates Committee hearing. What has happened to accountability?

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