No respect on agenda in question time

THE parliamentary secretary for justice was thrown out of the Victorian parliament for disrespectful behaviour yesterday.

THE parliamentary secretary for justice was thrown out of the Victorian parliament for disrespectful behaviour just hours after helping Premier John Brumby launch the latest phase of the state government's "respect agenda".

Marsha Thomson, local member for Footscray in Melbourne's western suburbs, sat down yesterday morning with Mr Brumby, new Respect Minister Justin Madden, Education Minister Bronwyn Pike and students at Footscray City College to talk about what respect meant to them and what they could do to increase it in the community.

The classroom discussion, filmed by news cameras, was followed by the Premier's announcement that the government would "roll out a Respect in Schools strategy to be incorporated across subjects, to drive cultural change . . . to promote positive behaviour, including values of tolerance, empathy, fairness and respect".

Mr Brumby last month said he had appointed Mr Madden as the minister for the "respect agenda" to address increasing problems of alcohol-fuelled violence, attacks on Indian students and racism in the community. The move was met by calls from the opposition that it was political correctness gone mad.

Yesterday, in his yearly Statement of Government Intentions speech to parliament, the Premier said his government was supporting "mutual respect" in the community by creating the "respect agenda" portfolio.

But his desire to get Victorians to respect each other fell on deaf ears during a rowdy question time, with Ms Thomson being warned for shouting while members of the opposition parties were talking before being asked to leave for 15 minutes by Speaker Jenny Lindell.

She was not the only member of parliament to be warned in parliament: Ms Lindell asked Police Minister Bob Cameron to treat his opposition colleagues with "respectable and appropriate manners" and also called on several Liberal Party MPs to be quiet.

The Australian last month revealed that the Premier's "respect agenda" was the exact title of a program developed by former British prime minister Tony Blair and subsequently dumped by his predecessor Gordon Brown.