Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I raise concerns about a member of the Australian parliament who has refused to provide his constituents with a portrait of the Queen unless they answer a quiz about the Australian Constitution. Tomorrow afternoon, the member for Corio will set up a stall outside his office in Geelong. Anyone wanting a portrait must attend the stall, where they will be subjected to the humiliation and embarrassment of being required to correctly answer questions about the Constitution. The member for Corio told the Geelong Advertiser this is to gauge how genuine people are about celebrating Australia's head of state. If they fail this quiz, they will be denied a portrait and offered, as some sort of consolation prize, a copy of the Constitution. What a pompous, demeaning, patronising, arrogant display of self-entitlement from someone who was lucky enough to graduate with a law degree from Melbourne university! Not everyone who lives in Geelong or the Bellarine has studied constitutional law, but this arrogant Labor MP considers it appropriate to discriminate against those who are not as well educated as he is. Judy-Anne, a nurse from Leopold, wrote to the member, saying, 'I'm an Australian citizen, yet you expect me to jump through hoops for your pleasure and entertainment.' Imposing these conditions on nationhood materials paid for by the taxpayer is the height of arrogance from an out-of-touch Labor MP who's taken his constituents for granted for far too long.