Page 38 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 13 February 1990
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Let me give you an example of this confusion in relation to public servants. When Mr Stefaniak was squirming, trying to explain his signature on a statement which was, in inverted commas, saying that he was the Minister for sport, he said, "I directed the public servant". "I directed the General Manager" were his words. "I directed the General Manager to do such and such". I ask, Mr Speaker, what power has an Executive Deputy to direct any public servant to do anything whatsoever?
Mr Collaery: He can convey a message on my behalf.
MR WHALAN: We now have an admission by this play Attorney-General that he was part of the conspiracy of Mr Stefaniak to present himself as a Minister of the Crown. So we have here the problem: to whom do people in the business community, those who are interested in tourism, go? I will come back to the conflict between individuals, but who do these people go to when they want to talk about tourism? Who do they go to when they want to talk about planning? They cannot get near Trevor Kaine. They cannot get near him to discuss with him planning issues which are of importance to this Assembly.
But let me go on now, Mr Speaker, to the question of conflict. It is part of the grave differences that exist between the people who make up this Executive Government of nine over there, plus you - the differences in terms of abilities, capacities, intelligence, diligence and sense of humour. We see here today the conflicts emerging.
We have heard Hector shoot off his mouth on radio the other day, ordering a public servant, who happened to be a union official and who made statements in his role as a union leader, out of the ABC studio. He was being censored so that his point of view as a unionist could not be expressed on radio. That is the sort of behaviour that we see, but it gives rise to conflict because, as Rosemary Follett said, Gary Humphries dumped him in it when he was asked a question about it.
Let us take the classic one. There was a beauty recently, Mr Speaker; it is a great source of discussion among members of the tourism industry at the moment about the division between Mr Duby and Mrs Nolan. You will all be aware - they are all aware - of the divisions between the two and of Mrs Nolan's resentment at Mr Duby's efforts to impose his will on tourism matters.
The classic example of this was in relation to a recent occasion at the Hyatt Hotel at the launch of a promotional video prepared by the Canberra Tourist Bureau. This was attended by hundreds of tourism industry and business leaders and the media. Following a dispute between Nolan and Duby over who would make the official speech, it was decided that they would each make a speech. But this was not acceptable to Nolan, and she boycotted the reception. It is the talk of the town among members of the tourist industry.
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