Page 1577 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 27 September 1989
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Debate (on motion by Dr Kinloch) adjourned.
ADJOURNMENT
Motion (by Mr Whalan) proposed:
That the Assembly do now adjourn.
Winfield Cup
MR HUMPHRIES: I rise to indicate that I will be moving a motion of censure tomorrow and I wish to explain something about that. I was shocked and horrified to read in the Daily Mirror yesterday - it is not a publication that I generally consult, but on this occasion I was drawn towards it - that an act of cultural vandalism occurred this week in Canberra. I am referring, of course, to the careless mutilation by members of the victorious Canberra Raiders rugby league team of the Winfield Cup. I want to quote from the Daily Mirror on that day. It said:
Football fans and players should be told why the Winfield Cup was treated so disgracefully in Canberra yesterday and who was responsible. It was an inglorious conclusion to a season in which teams from Brisbane to Wollongong strove for the chance just to hold the cup on grand final day. The Raiders should know better than most the extraordinary effort needed to be rewarded by that touch, but it appears someone did not value the trophy as much as others.
It concludes:
If they did it would not be found lying shattered on a Canberra street.
You can see the angst in those lines, the angst that the editor of the Daily Mirror clearly felt when he wrote those lines.
Mrs Nolan: He comes from Balmain!
MR HUMPHRIES: He probably does, as my friend Mrs Nolan indicates. What is particularly painful to this author is not so much the fact that the trophy was found lying shattered on a street but that it was found lying shattered on a Canberra street. If it had been found lying shattered perhaps on Ultimo Road, Balmain, it might not have been quite so painful but, unfortunately for the editor of the Daily Mirror, it was not. I am distressed to see that someone made light of this great tragedy, and I ask members to think of how embarrassing it would be to this Assembly, and
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .