Page 3092 - Week 14 - Thursday, 7 December 1989
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reciprocated in relation to the present opposition. We accept the fact that we are in opposition and they are in government. For how long, we do not know; what sort of government they are going to provide, we do know. It will be a mess.
But the fact remains, Mr Speaker, that at virtually any time that the then opposition sought the indulgence of the then Government by raising private members' business we agreed to that because we believed that all members of this Assembly had the right to represent the people of Canberra on the floor of this chamber. We believed that honestly and sincerely, and we put it into effect by providing them with the opportunity to raise private members' business substantially outside the prescribed period of the Wednesday morning period which is set aside for private members.
It is, Mr Speaker, no accident that the motion which appears on this paper about the special adjournment means that the next sitting day is a Thursday. It is no accident. It is a deliberate act on the part of this new, oppressive, secretive Government to call together the Assembly on a Thursday, rather than a Wednesday, specifically to deny private members the opportunity to discuss private members' business.
They are terrified, Mr Speaker. They are terrified to discuss the motion, which is notice No. 2 standing in my name on the business paper, which seeks the endorsement by this Assembly of the casino project. They are terrified to discuss it because they know they will tear themselves apart. They have no agreement on this, Mr Speaker. They are completely and desperately and irretrievably divided on this particular issue.
Bernard Collaery, Mr Speaker, is committed to the destruction of the casino project. Trevor Kaine claims to support it. But the fact is that they are not prepared to come out and state publicly to the community of Canberra what their position is. So they are pursuing this most undemocratic course of action. By applying the gag to debate within this chamber, they are denying the Assembly and the citizens of Canberra, the residents of the ACT, the opportunity to know precisely and specifically where they stand on this issue. I put it to you that there is a conspiracy within that group of 10 people to destroy the casino, but they do not have the guts to come out and state it publicly.
Motion (by Mr Collaery) proposed:
That the question be now put.
Question put.
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