Email intuition

Mr T.G. STEPHENS: Leaving aside the 3 000-odd e-mails I have received - I could not find in the e-mail river any from people within my electorate. I have been scanning through them as best I can. By and large, I believe they are not people from my electorate who are involved in this electronic campaign.

Mr M.W. Trenorden: What average of those people would e-mail you and me?

Mr T.G. STEPHENS: I do not mind people doing it.

Mr M.W. Trenorden: It collapses my whole office.

Mr T.G. STEPHENS: I do not mind.

Mr M.W. Trenorden: I’ve got one electorate to look after.

The ACTING SPEAKER: Order, members!

Mr T.G. STEPHENS: It is a historic thing; it is unprecedented campaigning in my experience of this place. In 25 years in Parliament I have never seen us experiencing this type of electronic campaign which -

Mr G. Woodhams: Intimidation.

Mr T.G. STEPHENS: No, no, it is not intimidation.

Mr G. Woodhams: Soft-headed modernism!

Mr T.G. STEPHENS: Welcome to the modern world, member! Expect more of it and in big numbers. If anything, those people who are organising our Internet system will need to devise methods for us to conduct electronic business while simultaneously having the opportunity, off to the side, to receive this type of lobbying. I expect we will get more of it.

Mr M.W. Trenorden: Just dump it. Hit the dump button.

Mr T.G. STEPHENS: That is 3 000 hit buttons to get that dump button. There is another way of doing it and most members have worked out how to do it. One puts it across into a discrete area of one’s e-mail. One can see it there growing and every now and then when one wants to have a look, one can do so.

Mr M.J. Birney: You can also do something crazy like read them! How do you know if they are from your electorate if you do not read them?

Several members interjected.

The ACTING SPEAKER: Order, members!

Mr T.G. STEPHENS: I think I have been digressed!

Subject: Daylight Saving Bill (no. 2) 2006 [Legislative Assembly - Standing Orders -- Suspension]

Date: 31 October 2006

Hansard reference: pp. 7886b - 7952a [online (pdf)]

Tags: parliament, state government, perth, wa, dst, daylight savings

Well, it's possibly more relevant than the Baghdad example

Mr J.B. D’ORAZIO: I am speaking today for a particular reason. The people who have taken the time to e-mail and contact us have gone out of their way. I need to record in this debate the fact that so many people have made the effort to contact us. I want to present these e-mails to the house so that the statistics will be recorded in Hansard forever. As I have said, my office has received more than 5137 e-mails. We have been very careful to ensure that if two e-mails have been sent from the same email address, we delete the second one so that we do not get a figure that is not true and accurate.

Mr B.J. Grylls: Your poor staff!

Mr J.B. D’ORAZIO: Yes! I was going to get to that. Ailsa, who is in the public gallery, and the other staff members in my office have had an absolute bugger of a week. They have said to me, “No more private members’ bills, please!”

Mr R.F. Johnson: What did you say?

Mr J.B. D’ORAZIO: I said, “See you next week!” I want to present these e-mails to the Parliament. I am not sure whether I can table them for those members who want to see them. As I have said, 96 per cent of the e-mails are in favour of daylight saving.

Mr R.F. Johnson: You can seek leave to lay them on the table for the balance of this day’s sitting.

Mr J.B. D’ORAZIO: I do not want them to be taken out of the chamber and made public.

Mr R.F. Johnson: No. If you seek leave to lay them on the table for the balance of this day’s sitting, they cannot be taken out of the chamber.

Mr J.B. D’ORAZIO: For the record, the e-mails that I am holding up are the ones that we have received in opposition to daylight saving. The two boxes of e-mails are the ones that we have received in support of daylight saving. I say that because I do not want to be accused of not presenting both cases.

Mr R.F. Johnson: Did you print them all off?

Mr J.B. D’ORAZIO: Yes.

Mr R.F. Johnson: What a waste of paper!

Mr J.B. D’ORAZIO: This is an important issue.

Mr B.J. Grylls: Daylight saving will lead to the loss of old-growth forests!

Subject: Daylight Saving Bill (No. 2) 2006 [Standing Orders Suspension - Motion]

Date: 31 October 2006

Hansard reference: pp. 7886b - 7952a [online (pdf)]

Tags: state government, parliament, perth, wa, daylight saving, dst, emails, old growth forests