Page 755 - Week 03 - Thursday, 22 March 1990
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Mr Collaery: She wrote a letter to all the tenants.
MR BERRY: She flushed you out, Mr Collaery. She flushed you out in the open and then you were running scared, so much so that you were not even going to meet with the tenants. What happened to the request by the residents to attend that meeting? You called off the meeting because you did not want to be pressured into having some of the residents there to keep their eye on you. More deception. That is all we have ever had from you since you have come into this place. It was not until you were forced by public outrage that you cancelled the meeting. Let us face it, it is all a matter of public record.
Mrs Grassby has demonstrated that she is prepared to stand up for the rights of the citizens of Canberra, but Mr Collaery's evasion of the issue and misrepresentation have left us with no alternative but to move this censure motion. This is a motion of some gravity for this Assembly. I am sure that the Government members opposite will gather round their friend because he needs a bit of defence at this stage. But he is in deep trouble because he has misled this Assembly and the people of Canberra. This is not the first time, of course. This motion should be carried in order to spare the people of Canberra any more of the garbage that we get from this Minister.
MR HUMPHRIES (Minister for Health, Education and the Arts) (3.41): I will try to take as seriously as this matter demands the issues that have been raised. Frankly, I cannot see a great deal of substance in them and I do not know that they deserve much consideration or time devoted by this Assembly. But as we have been dragged through this process of a sham censure motion, we might as well go through the charade.
It is clear to me what has really happened today. It is clear that the Opposition has heard a whisper about a rising tide of anger on the part of members on this side of the house about the comments made by Mrs Grassby about the supposed selling off of the Northbourne Flats. The Opposition said to itself, "Gee, that won't look very nice, will it, you know - 'Grassby censured' or 'Grassby condemned'".
Ms Follett: Mrs Grassby.
MR HUMPHRIES: Well, the newspapers do not usually say, "Mrs Grassby"; they would say, "Grassby condemned". That is what you would have feared had you allowed the normal course of events to have occurred today, as you thought.
Ms Follett: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. You have ruled previously on the correct form of address of members and I must object to having my members addressed by their surnames.
MR HUMPHRIES: I was not addressing her; I was quoting.
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