Page 37 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 13 February 1990
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of that committee; I have nothing to do with the committee, and to assert that I am censoring it is another absurdity.
Mr Moore: You as a government. Is it your Government or not?
MR KAINE: The Government is involved in all committees as the Government is in all parliamentary bodies, but because its members are members of committees in no way that they are censoring or controlling. They are participants in all committees and will continue to be, but that in no way can be read as imposing censorship or controlling what government business will come forward. I would not be party to that, even if it were possible, and I think that to assert otherwise is to question my integrity. I do not believe that anybody is impressed with that kind of calling into integrity of me or any other member sitting on this side of the house.
As to the question of whether people do not know whether they are speaking to the monkey or the organ grinder, at least under this Government people can talk to somebody. One of the constant complaints that I had until 5 December was, "We cannot get to talk to anybody. We always end up talking not even to the monkey but to the monkey's assistant, or we can't even get access to the fifth floor to talk to anybody". At least now people do have somebody to whom they can talk. We are responding to the needs of the public, and I think that this debate is really a waste of everybody's time.
MR WHALAN (4.15): In mid-December, probably in a rush of blood to the head, Trevor Kaine waved his magic wand across the heads of a group of people and, in the process of doing so, created a group of constitutional mutants known as Executive Deputies. In so doing, Mr Speaker, Mr Kaine initiated a violent and bizarre departure from tradition in the governance of the ACT. I think that what has happened as a result of this act of magic on the part of the chief magician or - - -
Mr Kaine: I'm not a magician.
MR WHALAN: Nor a fairy, indeed! The results will be recorded in history to the detriment, quite clearly I believe, of the reputation of this chamber as an instrument of government in the ACT. I refute entirely the remarks made by Mr Kaine that there is no confusion. There is confusion. People who wish to do business with the Government continue to indicate to me that they are confused about to whom they should address their approaches. Do they speak to Ministers? Do they speak to these Executive Deputies? They are confused. Public servants, I think, are equally confused and, as a result of some of the goings-on in the chamber here today, I believe that they will be further confused.
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