Page 512 - Week 02 - Thursday, 22 February 1990
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just a case of the ballot being lost. Mr Stevenson has the opportunity in the adjournment debate to present his opinion and, if he wishes, to seek leave for an extension of time at that point.
MR SPEAKER: Order! I will just draw members' attention to the fact that there seems to be an error creeping into the debate. Mr Stevenson's MPI was not balloted out. I ruled that it was out of order and not something that could be debated within this house within the timeframe of an MPI. However, I believe that it could be raised as a matter, as it has been raised, or addressed during the adjournment debate.
MR HUMPHRIES (Minister for Health, Education and the Arts) (4.43): Mr Speaker, I am a little bit confused. I know that members of the ALP on previous occasions in this house have screamed in horror when people have spoken about applying the gag. I am not sure whether they, in their own particular and strange lexicon, would describe this as a gag, but I certainly think it is a gag. Members of the ALP in this house frequently seek the right to make statements - some of them quite frivolous, by the way. That right is rarely, if ever, rejected. Yet now they say that they do not believe that Mr Stevenson should have the right to make a statement of 10 minutes duration - certainly shorter than some of the statements Mr Whalan has been known to make. I find that attitude hard to accept and reconcile with their previous horror at the prospect of gagging members of the Assembly.
I assume from their reaction that Mr Stevenson has something to say which may affect the ALP's election campaign. We have had several attempts previously in this chamber, particularly from Opposition benches, to raise issues in relation to the Federal campaign, and I think that if they have opened a particular Pandora's box they are going to have to accept whatever might come out of it.
MR COLLAERY (Attorney-General) (4.45): I rise to close this part of the debate. Briefly, Mr Speaker, I think it is clearly correct for us to allow this member to speak to something that he believes is important and should come on in this order. If we err, we err on the side of free speech and democracy. He has asked for 10 minutes. That is all he is getting, on your ruling, Mr Speaker, and on the motion. I commend the house to allow him the right to speak here on this issue.
Mrs Grassby: It is not on the business paper.
MR COLLAERY: You were informed earlier about it - you have not been taken by surprise.
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