Page 771 - Week 05 - Thursday, 6 July 1989
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have? We have doubts because real values, community values in this town, including the people who were there ultimately to guard against them, have been subverted. We have to be careful, Mr Speaker, that in reacting to this "incorporated" problem we do not overreact and also, as the Rally warned in its policy statement, that we do not descend into a situation where we have a problem that the pendulum swings and we start to restrict rights.
Mr Speaker, I seek leave to have one of my colleagues sit next to me in this debate.
A member: Someone come and hold his hand.
MR COLLAERY: Well, I am not ashamed to have my hand held. The fact is, Mr Speaker, that, if the Labor Party wants to hear an informed debate, I will need some assistance because there is a massive quantity of information to refute the motion on my desk and in my safe. Who brought the first safe into this Assembly, a four-drawer safe ordered on the first day? It was so that the Rally could cart its papers in here and not have them lost or otherwise got at.
Mr Kaine: Mr Speaker, on a point of order, there is a clear imputation in that statement that members of this Assembly are in some way associated with stealing papers and documents from the Residents Rally. My office is on the same floor as Mr Collaery's and I really do ask that he withdraw that imputation, Mr Speaker.
Mrs Grassby: I second that, Mr Speaker.
MR COLLAERY: Mr Speaker, I unreservedly withdraw any imputation that any person could have derived from that in the Assembly. The statement I made, Mr Speaker, as the Hansard will show, is that the Rally wanted to make sure its documents were secure. The Rally has documents and the Rally has prepared its case for the establishment of an independent commission against corruption. It will proceed unless the Public Accounts Committee gets going quickly with a Bill in its own right.
The New South Wales Government has taken the nettle and run with it. A Liberal government cancelled the casino at Darling Harbour within 24 hours, established the Independent Commission Against Corruption, and it is sweeping the State. Council rents, municipal rates and a whole variety of issues will be improved for so many of the poor, the aged, the disadvantaged in our community when we find where civic councils are really spending the money. I have in this chamber the New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption Act. Framed against the background to that Act - - -
Mr Whalan: I rise on a point of order, Mr Speaker. I draw your attention to the words of the motion, which suggest that Mr Collaery is in breach of standing orders, as you had earlier ruled.
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