Page 41 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 23 May 1989
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have not had a single telephone call from anybody on the subject. I have spoken to literally hundreds of people in all kinds of public meetings and at various places that I have been to, and not one person has raised the question with me.
If this is such a matter of public importance, how is it that in this lapse of time not one person, other than Mr Collaery, has ever raised the question? It is inappropriately being debated as a matter of public importance because, I repeat, it is a matter of importance only to Mr Collaery.
I am not going to dwell on the question of the election or otherwise. That has been dealt with already, and most adequately, by the Chief Minister. But I think that we need to get this whole thing in perspective. The fact is that Mr Collaery has been so smart over the recent months that he has negotiated himself onto the cross benches where he is today.
He tried for weeks to negotiate with the Liberals, and he failed because his demands were so incredible and so outrageous that we could not accept them. He negotiated himself out of government with the Liberals. Then he tried his luck with the Labor Party. I submit that from what I have heard and read in the media, which I suspect is fairly accurate, he did exactly the same thing with Labor. He has just outsmarted himself in every direction.
Then he comes onto the floor of the Assembly. He has talked himself out of being a member of the Government, let alone being the Chief Minister, which was his driving ambition. He comes onto the floor of the Assembly and he chances his arm fully to the Opposition. Because of his very attitude to the other members of this place, excluding the five members of the Labor Party who decided not to vote on the issue, he outsmarted himself again.
He sits on the cross benches and then he challenges the rules. He challenges the integrity of the other members of this Assembly. I submit to you, Mr Speaker, and to the members of this Assembly, that Mr Collaery needs to look to his own integrity.
Every time he addresses the chamber - and he has done it a couple of times already so far - he casts aspersions on my behaviour. He talks about the people that I associate with as though there is somehow something underhand, some kind of subterfuge, as though I am a dishonest person.
I would submit that there are hundreds of people in Canberra who have known me for 30 and 40 years. They all know that the aspersions that Mr Collaery casts have no basis in fact, and they know me well enough to know that I would not be party to any underhand dealings. If it is not on the top of the table, I am not interested in it.
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