Page 2542 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 15 November 1989
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Assembly. I have no doubt that we can all recall the long debates on the floor of the Assembly in those early days when these committees were established. Members who participated in the debates would acknowledge that the general convention seemed to be that a single member was generally only entitled to representation on one standing committee but it was possible for a member to participate in a select committee as well.
However, what we now find is that Mr Moore is already a member of one standing committee, the chairman of a select committee and a member of another select committee. On this basis, Mr Speaker, because the select committee was put forward by the Rally and as Mr Moore has the chair of a select committee which, as we are all aware, he established - and we are sure he would like to retain membership of it - it is proposed that Dr Kinloch replace Mr Moore on the Select Committee on Cultural Activities.
MR MOORE (11.56): It is curious, is it not, that when this committee was first proposed by Mr Jensen there were no disputes over who was the most suitably placed to be nominated as the Rally's representative? There was no internal division, no rancour, no qualms about my competence to undertake the job. So what has changed? The most immediate explanation is that I have left the Residents Rally to go my own peculiar way, but that has not undermined my capacity for rational thought and analysis. Indeed, that capacity has, in the view of many, simply been affirmed and enhanced by my decision. So what, I have to ask again, has changed?
Let me put forward two possible explanations. The first is that, whether there is any truth in it or not, I am now seen by the Rally as a sworn enemy. That was illustrated earlier today. I may even have displaced the Deputy Chief Minister at the head of their most wanted list. No, that could not be so. I am certainly fair game for the Rally's vituperation, their snide little remarks, their implacable opposition to anything I do. I can live with that. Being the butt of their antagonism and their quest for revenge only shows up how devoid the Rally is of ways to pursue their stated policies and contribute to the demise of a party which no longer has any real reason to exist.
Yesterday, the "President's Rally" celebrated their second anniversary. Typically, they got it wrong, since the Rally was started on 13 November - a Friday as it happened - two years ago. More importantly, on their first birthday only two of the three coordinators who founded the Rally were left. This year there was only one. Next year, I cannot say - - -
Mrs Grassby: There will be none.
MR MOORE: I cannot say how things will be next year, but what is left is a sad and embittered rump with nowhere to go. I can understand their desire to strike out whenever
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