Page 1294 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 23 August 1989
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face of constant requests by the Rally to get government free of red tape and to get a planning appeals structure going to give certainty to the system.
Mr Speaker, it was suggested that I personally was opposed to jobs and that I thought all workers should be itinerant. Now, I am sure that Rod Driver of the BWIU and his other colleagues would not believe a shred of that story, because if they look at the Hansard they will find that I referred to a great tradition of itinerant labour in this country, a tradition more marked in northern climes, and I am sure the Speaker himself understands the concept of itinerant movements in Australia occasionally when many professionals and workers move around this country in changed lifestyles at different stages of their lives. My remarks were addressed to that.
I want to tell the Deputy Chief Minister that until I entered this Assembly I was in legal practice, private commercial practice, and all the records of my practice, which have been open for months since people started to delve, will reveal that more than $1m a month went through my modest trust account. As anyone knows, the moneys that go through your trust account are only a small proportion of your business. That is a measure of my contact in the commercial area and the commercial world.
As Rod Driver and Charles McDonald know, 10 years ago a leading union official in this town, a marvellous character - I will not name him - was got off a charge in this town by me in my endeavours to ensure that that union official did not suffer the victimisation that he believed he had from those police officers. That is in the Canberra Times of 10 July 1979, from memory - the 10th or the 12th. I want any union people here to hear this. If anyone is suggesting I am personally against unionists, personally against labour, then I am certain that they will understand that the Rally, with me as its leader today - - -
Mr Duby: What about tomorrow?
A member: Where are Sue and Chris?
MR COLLAERY: They have given me a notice to tell me to finish the speech. Mr Speaker, the fact of the matter is that we have an excellent community based support group who can assist and bridge the inadequacies, the inconsistencies, the ambiguities of this minority Labor Government in its so far failed attempt to grapple with the planning needs of this Territory.
I am determined, Mr Speaker, to assure all the many commercial clients I used to have - all the builders, subbies and workers, and the many workers from the Southside Caravan Park who were clients of mine whom I dealt with and helped, particularly when they were on hard times - that I have a strong personal commitment in those areas.
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