Page 3011 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 5 December 1989
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And what of consultation? We have seen a lot of blustering in question time about lack of consultation on the part of the Labor Government. You will have your chance to prove that you can do better, and I shall look forward to assessing your performance and informing the people of Canberra.
I am still waiting to hear the reason for the no-confidence motion. Mr Duby said last week that he would put his vote your way if you gave a good reason on the inadequacy of the Labor Government. You have obviously shared that with him. However, no-one has shared it with me. Who knows? Had you even approached me, had you given your reasons, I might have joined your Liberal coalition.
Bernard Collaery's speech presented a litany of government inadequacy as the reason: X-rated videos, pressure on the Speaker, planning problems. Such reasons are simply rationalisations. This motion is simply a grab for power. That it is about X-rated video funding is simply lies. This motion - to quote Mr Collaery at the start of his speech - "had its direct origins in the evening of 22 November when we became aware for the first time", blah, blah, blah, blah. That is a lie. Manipulations and machinations toward this day started just a few hours after this Chief Minister first took office.
I wonder, with such a disparate group of people, what chance you really have of providing stable government for the ACT. We could have had stability had the Rally been prepared to sit on the crossbenches. The potential for instability is now far greater. I hope you will not wave your signed document at me as proof. Remember Chamberlain's piece of paper, "Peace in our time"? Even now, no-one would question his good intentions, and I do not question the good intentions of the Chief Minister-to-be. However, I do not support this change of government. There is simply no reason for it other than a simple grab for power, with complete disregard for what is in the best interests of the people of Canberra as a whole.
Allow me to provide just one small warning by quoting from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, as I did in the Albert Hall last Wednesday night:
Let me have men about me that are fat ... and such as sleep o' nights: Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look ... such men are dangerous.
Congratulations on this incredible coup, on all those different levels, Mr Kaine. It will require all your ability and all your own integrity to keep it together. For these reasons I shall oppose the no-confidence motion and I shall watch with interest and participate on behalf of the people of Canberra from the crossbenches.
MR PROWSE (3.53): Mr Deputy Speaker, the matter referred to by Mr Collaery and others is one which I regard as my
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