Labor backbencher John Hargreaves has escaped punishment after referring to the Tuggeranong Community Council a two-man geriatric self-help group who were lackeys of the Canberra Liberals.
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The veteran Brindabella MLA sparked outrage among the Canberra Liberals during a late night Assembly debate on Wednesday, when he also also referred to newly announced opposition candidate Val Jeffery as a “Liberal front” who had come out of “a water closet.”
But an attempt by the Opposition in the Assembly this morning to have Mr Hargreaves censured for his comments and sacked from his job as Government Whip failed when the ACT Greens refused to endorse it.
During the Liberals’ attempt to censure Mr Hargreaves this morning, Opposition Deputy Leader Brendan Smyth said that the Labor backbencher had brought the Assembly into disrepute with his comments about the council.
“It’s this sort of behaviour that doesn’t do anybody any good,” Mr Smyth said.
“Here’s this group of volunteers who get this flogging from Mr Hargreaves when he is his worked up state after dinner.”
Mr Smyth accused Mr Hargreaves of making ageist comments against the council members.
“He slags them for being old,” Mr Smyth said.
In his speech on Wednesday night’s late sitting when the Assembly was debating planning in Tuggeranong, Mr Hargreaves berated Mr Smyth for his involvement with the council.
“The shame of it all, Mr Speaker, is that he does go to that old person’s club known as the Tuggeranong Community Council and he sees both of the punters who go to that and then claims to have some sort of community connection,” Mr Hargreaves said.
“A community connection with this geriatric mob who just sit there in their place, both of them, it’s just nothing but a self-help group.”
The Labor backbencher also seized on his speech on admissions from Mr Jeffery, reported in this paper last week, that his Community Alliance Party which contested the 2008 election as an independent group was in fact committed to installing a Liberal government.
“…it’s interesting to note how Mr Jeffery has outed himself as a Liberal front, he said I was a member of that party for 40 years and he only went into that party to make sure there was a Liberal government and that has got to be questioned by the electorate at large,” Mr Hargreaves told the chamber.
“He’s not a closet Liberal, he comes from a water closet, Mr Speaker.”
