Page 3108 - Week 14 - Thursday, 7 December 1989
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MR SPEAKER: Please uphold the dignity of this chamber. Mr Whalan, would you please make an unreserved withdrawal.
MR WHALAN: I unreservedly withdraw any imputation that Trevor Kaine is a liar.
Mr Kaine: Thank you.
MR WHALAN: And Mr Kaine accepts that.
MR SPEAKER: That is not acceptable. The point, I believe, is that both members were called up. It was an either/or situation. I would ask you to withdraw both.
MR WHALAN: With respect, Mr Speaker, are we going to be allowed to put this Government under the microscope? Are we going to be allowed to highlight the deep divisions within this Government?
MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Whalan, please make an unconditional withdrawal.
MR WHALAN: Mr Speaker, at no stage did I suggest that Mr Collaery was a liar, and if anyone is so sensitive as to think that - - -
MR SPEAKER: Thank you, Mr Whalan. If you did not make that statement, please proceed.
MR WHALAN: In the Canberra Times on Friday, 24 November, Mr Collaery quite clearly and categorically indicated that he was out to savage a particular public servant.
Mr Collaery: On a point of order, Mr Speaker; I do not savage public servants.
MR SPEAKER: That is a frivolous point of order. Please proceed, Mr Whalan.
MR WHALAN: We will not talk about his bestiality. Mr Speaker - - -
MR SPEAKER: Order! Please, Mr Whalan, withdraw those words. They were recorded.
MR WHALAN: I withdraw them. Mr Speaker, the other things that, of course, we have got to be concerned about are the questions that we would like to raise with the Government. I assume that what they are going to try to do is to gag this Assembly further. This motion relates to when we next meet. What I can see happening is that, after this motion is put, there will be a further motion that the Assembly do now adjourn. The effect of that motion will be to gag the Assembly, and we will not have the opportunity to ask questions of Trevor Kaine.
There is a whole series of questions that the opposition wishes to raise with Trevor Kaine about the probity of
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