Page 1641 - Week 08 - Thursday, 28 September 1989
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Mr Whalan: On a point of order, Mr Speaker; the issues are being argued. The member must confine himself to the question of the suspension and not to the arguments.
MR SPEAKER: That is overruled, Minister. I believe that the member is trying to make his point. Please stick as closely to the issue as possible, Mr Moore.
MR MOORE: Thank you, Mr Speaker. I expected these objections. Labor Party members do not want to debate this issue because they are fake environmentalists.
Mr Whalan: I take a point of order, Mr Speaker. These wild allegations that are now being made by the current speaker are clearly not part of the very narrow limits that must be observed in relation to a suspension of standing orders. Mr Moore must be given some instruction in relation to these narrow limits and he should be encouraged to stay within those very fine lines.
MR SPEAKER: The point of order is upheld. Mr Moore, please immediately address the issue.
MR MOORE: Thank you, Mr Speaker. The particular point I wish to make is that it is important to debate this issue now. It is important that we actually suspend standing orders in order to debate the issue which I have raised and which members, if they wish, can read from the notice paper. The motion that I am talking about is that the Assembly demand that the stocking of the National Aquarium with anything other than fish and other water life indigenous to the Murray-Darling waterways not be permitted until due environmental process are followed and that those processes include a draft environmental impact statement, four weeks' public comment on the draft environmental impact statement, and a final environmental impact statement for the approval of the Standing Committee on Conservation, Heritage and Environment.
In summary, Mr Speaker, let me say that if people are genuinely concerned about protecting the environment they will support debating this motion now.
MR WHALAN (3.09): Mr Speaker, the Government opposes the suspension of standing orders for two simple reasons. It is an extraordinary discourtesy to the Leader of the Opposition when the whole week has been built around this time as the period for his reply to the budget. It is an extraordinary discourtesy on the part of the Residents Rally party to encroach on his time.
The second point that I would like to make is that in negotiations with the Residents Rally party on Monday about private members' business - and this is private members' business, bear in mind - we offered to allocate the whole evening of Tuesday for that purpose, which would have meant this would have come up. Members of the Residents Rally
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