Page 1128 - Week 04 - Thursday, 29 March 1990
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Mrs Grassby: It is not Assembly business.
MR HUMPHRIES: I think the distinction is a very fine one indeed.
Mr Moore: On a point of order, Mr Speaker; this is not relevant.
MR HUMPHRIES: Yes, I will be relevant, Mr Speaker. I cannot understand the position of members opposite. I do not see that there is any reason for leave in these circumstances and I certainly will not support it.
MR BERRY (4.35): Mr Speaker, I would just like to have a few words on this. Everybody has reservations about the expenditure of funds on things which are commonly held to be junkets - in my view, commonly held for the wrong reasons. This issue is not about that. This issue is about somebody being given leave of absence to attend a function which is purely Assembly business and which has the approval of an Assembly committee.
Mr Collaery: It is not Assembly business.
MR BERRY: People are seeking to confuse the issue. Please pull that person up over there, Mr Speaker. The fact of the matter is that approval has been given for somebody to go on a trip. The relevance of the trip is another matter for the Assembly to decide. If somebody over there later on wants to move a motion that he does not go, or that it is not funded, that is entirely up to them. The issue is, and it is a plain issue, that if members of this Assembly have business which is approved in any way, shape or form, then it seems to me that this Assembly is obligated to give approval for that leave.
This issue about Assembly sittings not occurring in the next couple of weeks and so on, is - to use Mr Humphries' oft used word - a furphy, because in the games that these people opposite play I would not be surprised to see an Assembly sitting called, particularly for political reasons, to embarrass Mr Moore.
These sorts of games need to be shoved aside. The people opposite need to search their consciences about whether it is proper for this Assembly to grant to a member leave of absence which was quite properly asked for - no more than that.
Mr Humphries raised the issue of a matter which was reported in the paper today in relation to a trip to Zimbabwe to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association conference. If this branch of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association had approved that trip, then it would have been Assembly business. It is quite inappropriate to bring it up in this debate because it is not an issue. If that Commonwealth Parliamentary Association had given approval for whoever to attend the
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