Page 35 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 13 February 1990
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Deputies have the same relationship to the Executive in this place and to the legislature as those people in other places.
If this is all beyond the comprehension of the members of the Opposition, I suggest that they simply read up a little on the way parliaments work. It is quite normal; it is quite simple; it is quite basic.
I will not deal with the question of the separation of powers at any great length, although I can say that I do understand it. It is not beyond my comprehension. I have been around parliamentary and semi-parliamentary bodies for a long time, and I understand quite clearly what it is, but my colleague the Attorney-General will be speaking on that aspect.
I will address a few things that Ms Follett touched upon in her fanciful discourse. She said that the collegiate system was somehow foisted on the Liberals and on me by the Residents Rally. That would be great if it were true, but if anybody bothers to go back to the things that I said during the election campaign, now over a year ago, it would be seen that I talked about a system of collegiate government months before I ever had any discussion of any kind with Mr Collaery.
The concept of collegiate government, I believe, was something that I put forward first in the public arena. For the Leader of the Opposition to assert that somehow Mr Collaery has foisted this on me as the Chief Minister is an absurdity and patently untrue. I wish she would get her facts straight. She has only to do some reading of the things that were said and done within living memory, only a year ago.
She wants to know who is in control. The Chief Minister and the Executive are clearly in control. They meet as a Cabinet; they determine what is done. She mentioned the joint party room and the Executive. The joint party room stands in relationship to the Executive in our Government in exactly the same way as the Labor caucus stands in relationship to a Labor government. The caucus determines policy; the Executive implements the policy. There is a clear distinction. Maybe even you can understand that distinction of responsibility. The party room develops the policy and the Cabinet, as does the Labor Cabinet and the Labor Executive, implements it. There is no confusion whatsoever in that.
You can go to the lengths of absurdity that the Leader of the Opposition did to try to explain what the titles mean. I believe that any one of my Executive Deputies in my Government would be quite happy to be referred to as the spokesman on such and such a subject if it is that difficult to comprehend. I do not believe the media have any difficulty with it. They sometimes get it wrong, but then the media like to heighten a little bit of controversy
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