Page 951 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 27 March 1990
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MR SPEAKER: Order! Order!
Ms Follett: Mr Speaker, you have already ruled that that matter be dealt with by the Privileges Committee.
MR SPEAKER: I will take advice. Members, I find myself between a rock and a hard place at this stage. The matter would be moved before the Privileges Committee. Therefore, we really should not comment further on that aspect. I do take the point that Ms Follett raises that there was an interjection. If we are going to really run this place like the Gestapo camp to which Mr Moore is alluding, we should all recognise that every interjection is improper. Therefore, I would suggest to all members that the interjection made by Mr Duby is not of such a horrendous nature compared with others that have been made, and I overrule the objection raised by Ms Follett. Please proceed, Mr Moore.
MR MOORE: Thank you, Mr Speaker. (Extension of time granted) Each individual member here had to make his or her own decision as to whether he or she would support the suspension of Mr Whalan. One of the most interesting speeches we heard earlier today was from Dr Kinloch, who talked about committees and how it is that we have many hats. He talked about wearing four different hats - as an individual, which he gave highest priority, as a member of a party, as a member of a government and as a member of a committee.
It seems to me that the members of the Government, particularly Dr Kinloch, seem to have forgotten that they also have those same responsibilities - it is no good just talking about them, saying one thing and doing another. It is like writing a letter to the editor, saying, "I am a member of a civil liberties council; therefore, I am a civil libertarian". What absolute nonsense. People do not judge whether you are a civil libertarian by the fact that you happen to have been a member of a civil liberties council. They judge it on whether you allow people civil liberties when you are in a position of power to provide those liberties.
The truth of the matter is that Dr Kinloch does not do that; he does not want to give people civil liberties at all. He does not want people to be able to gamble, he does not want people to be able to watch any movies that they wish to watch when they do no harm to others, and so on. I am pleased to see that Mr Collaery is over there to hold Dr Kinloch's hand.
This particular issue is about people being prepared to exercise their own judgment, but of course this Government, made up as it is of such disparate groups, cannot possibly allow its members to exercise their own judgment. No individual can exercise his or her own judgment, because if members do not work as a block, the chinks will appear and as soon as that happens - - -
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