Paul Neville (Hinkler, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

What about the Westminster system, which allows everyone to be heard in silence? After that occasion, it happened again twice. My state member called me up and said, ‘You weren’t at the opening of such-and-such the other day.’ I said, ‘I wasn’t invited.’ ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘I know you weren’t. I went to the management of this particular Job Network and they said they were instructed not to invite you.’ As recently as last Sunday, outside church, one of the Green Corps committee came up to me and said: ‘Paul, we’ve been told not to invite you next Thursday, but please come along. You will be acknowledged and honoured.’ That is disgraceful. The tit-for-tatting that colleagues on both sides are going on with demeans us as members of parliament. However, this does not happen in all portfolios. I must say out of fairness that I have been treated with great courtesy by Minister Albanese and Parliamentary Secretary Gray.

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