Maitland MP Jenny Aitchison has defended herself after the state government’s Hunter representative attacked her for being ejected from question time.
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Ms Aitchison was removed from the lower house chamber on Tuesday, for the fifth time since she was elected last March.
Parliamentary Secretary for the Hunter Scot MacDonald sent a statement to the media on Tuesday that criticised the Maitland MP for being ejected.
Mr MacDonald accused Ms Aitchison of making frivolous points of order, when she should have been representing the interests of Maitland.
“As I said in May last year, question time is an opportunity for opposition members to put the government under the microscope and represent the issues of their electorates,” he said.
“Ms Aitchison is unable to do that if she is repeatedly ejected from chamber.
“The people of Maitland deserve to have their interests represented on the floor of the Legislative Assembly by their member of Parliament, not sidelined while their member is on a time out in their office.”
But Ms Aitchison returned fire on Wednesday and said Mr MacDonald should focus on the important issues that faced the Hunter.
She said she believed the Baird government was failing Maitland and she would not be silenced while that was happening.
“I believe the Premier, when he’s asked a question, should answer it and that was not happening,” Ms Aitchison said.
“When the Premier of this state disrespects our community by not responding to questions from the elected members, then I will kick up about it.
“We have a situation where more than one in five people can’t get a job and we have had near recession levels of unemployment in the last year.
“We have vital infrastructure such as the Maitland Hospital which could have provided an additional 9000 jobs in our region under the government’s original election promise from 2011, which has not been built.”
