Page 1137 - Week 04 - Thursday, 29 March 1990
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pretty unequivocal. Nevertheless, Mr Speaker, Mr Kaine did write back to me. I got this letter from Mr Kaine as I walked into the Assembly for question time. Upon receiving it, I went up to Mr Kaine, I said, "Are we clear on sitting next Tuesday?". He said, "If it's an unequivocal reply". I said three times, "The answer is 'yes'".
Mr Kaine: You referred me to your earlier letter.
MS FOLLETT: I said three times, "The answer is 'yes'", Mr Kaine. I really do fail to understand the Chief Minister's sensitivity on this matter. I have stated, as a matter of principle, that when this Assembly sits we would prefer to have question time. I have in no way qualified my acceptance of the Chief Minister's offer to respond to his statement next Tuesday, and I very much resent his attempt to misinterpret my remarks.
MR KAINE (Chief Minister) (5.06): The Leader of the Opposition wonders why I am sensitive to her remarks. But when Mr Berry gets up and talks about being cowardly and trying to avoid the issue, I do not quite know how I am to respond to that. The fact is, Mr Speaker, that I wrote a letter as a matter of courtesy and offered the Leader of the Opposition the opportunity to reconvene the Assembly so that she could respond to my strategy statement.
Ms Follett: And I accepted.
MR KAINE: You did not come back and say "I accept with pleasure your invitation". You started talking about sitting for a whole week, which was never in question, and is not possible because, as I said in my later letter, most of us have commitments next week. We could not sit for the whole week. It was never in question anyway. You also said, "We would like question time". My offer to you was an unequivocal offer out of courtesy to give you the chance to reply. You have chosen to play games. If I operate on that basis, I will find that when you finish speaking next Tuesday, Labor members will be jumping up and down demanding question time, demanding a continuation of the sitting. You lot will not respond in the sense in which I, out of courtesy, offered you the right of reply. You are darned right, I am sensitive, because I know that you are playing games. You would not simply come back and say, "Yes, I accept the offer"; you had to hedge it round so that you could play your games next week.
If you are prepared to give the Assembly, here and now, an unequivocal undertaking that when you finish your reply on Tuesday, the Assembly will adjourn, you have your meeting. It is as simple as that. We will sit at 10.30 am on Tuesday, as I offered it to you, for the period of time necessary for you to respond to the strategy statement. If you give an unequivocal response to that, the meeting will take place.
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