Page 29 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 13 February 1990
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caused enormous confusion, and I suspect that the length of the title is probably inversely related to the talents and the creativity of the person bearing it. But the creation of these Executive Deputies shows that Mr Kaine, in forming his coalition, was not strong enough to fend off the paranoia of his coalition partners. There is just no hiding the paranoia which led to a Residents Rally deputy being appointed to look over the shoulder of each of the two Liberal Ministers. There is no hiding the doubts and the mistrust which caused a Liberal deputy to be given the role of watching each of the two non-Liberal Ministers.
You might want to cast your minds back to 11 May last year, if you have any doubts whatsoever about the antipathy and the divisions between the two major parties in this coalition, when Mr Kaine, speaking of his now Deputy Chief Minister, Mr Collaery, was quoted in Hansard as saying:
He -
that is, Mr Collaery -
presents himself as the knight in shining armour on the white horse, fighting against the two big party machines. His party machine -
that is, Mr Collaery's party machine -
is stronger than mine.
That is, Mr Kaine's. He continued:
His executive -
that is, Mr Collaery's executive -
gave him more directions in the past few weeks than mine gave to me.
That is, Mr Kaine. He continued:
He -
Mr Collaery -
misrepresents himself and he misrepresents me and I resent it.
That was Mr Kaine speaking not even a year ago. I do not think matters have changed all that much.
Let me turn to the supposed role of Executive Deputies and, indeed, the way the whole Executive Government works. Firstly, I think we should look at the accord between the coalition members, a copy of which I have here but I am sure they all know it off by heart. It says that all participating members will be involved in executive decision making, that decision making will be vested in the
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