Facts About the Graffiti Bill and Barry's Hissy Fit

The Shooters and Fishers Party did NOT vote against the Government's Graffiti Bill.

We voted for an amendment which was supported by the majority of members in the Legislative Council, and returned the Bill to the Lower House.

That amendment means that first time offenders will NOT lose their licence. The Bill provides that for second and subsequent offences, licenses can be cancelled.

The Premier seeks to portray us somehow as "villains", when it was he himself who put out a media release on the Thursday night even BEFORE the vote was taken, to pass the legislation, accusing the Shooters and Fishers Party of "torpedoing" his Bill.

The Government also tried to engineer the "defeat" of the Bill by having Government MLC's not call for a division on the third reading, so as to have the Bill lapse.

It's convenient this hissy fit coincidentally appeared at the height of the Orica disaster at Stockton.

It's time the Premier stopped playing silly games and got on with running the State. That is what the electorate expects of him and the Shooters and Fishers Party is prepared to support him in getting the place moving again.

For about the last 20 years, no Premier has had a majority in the Legislative Council. They all managed to work with varying degrees of success with other Members of the Chamber to secure passage of their Bills.

Mr O'Farrell will do the same thing.

The Shooters and Fishers Party has said it will support the Government, unless by act or omission, it works against the interests of our constituents. If Mr O'Farrell doesn't want to negotiate, or even talk to us about our legislative agenda, he cannot really expect our support.

He can always go and deal with the five Greens in the House. They hold the balance of power.