Page 1349 - Week 05 - Thursday, 26 April 1990
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as was established, the unreasonable suspicions - of the community groups and people in the community who did not think they had a say; self-government was being forced upon many of them.
In my comments I need to acknowledge that a stage was set for the unfortunate commencement period of self-government, and that was the period when I, as a community leader, let years of non-consultation go on, on a whole range of issues across the whole community spectrum. Of course, Paul Whalan, as someone with the broadest shoulders in this Assembly and, as other people have said, one of the key, experienced operators, absorbed a lot of the punishment.
I came to this Assembly raw, inexperienced in politics and bursting to have a go and to even the score. I believe that, in a debate on 4 July 1989 in response to a motion called by Mr Berry, I overstepped the mark. I have said that; I said that in December, and I say now that, clearly, I should never have tabled the document; it should have been supplied elsewhere in confidence in another circumstance. That was an error of judgment which I acknowledged, not in a mealy-mouthed way but directly, in December, long before any good words about Paul Whalan were brought on by his resignation. That is an acknowledgement made.
Mr Speaker, Paul Whalan's other achievement has been to sharpen debate in the Assembly, and that produces a better democratic process. I believe that his other achievements have been catalogued, but I do want to say that controversy probably is the hallmark of the kind of broad footed, broad shouldered politician that Mr Whalan is. I do not believe that, in saying that he suffered grievously at my hands, he has been in any way seriously and permanently impaired as a result. Certainly, if there had been a situation that I could have attended to in relation to those matters I would have, but it achieved its own momentum at the time and it was not a situation that one could deal with easily.
Mr Speaker, that was the situation of self-government here in its early months. There was a lot of angst. As for the manner in which Mr Moore shifted responsibility onto my shoulders, let me remind him that he did apologise to me on an occasion for meeting with you, Mr Paul Whalan and Mr Peter Conway prior to the formation of government to have a discussion. That was a discussion that his colleagues did not know about. I say this with no rancour, Mr Speaker: it typified the extreme skills that Mr Paul Whalan has.
He had a very great hand in setting up self-government here and likewise, and unknown to many people, a very great hand in shaping the direction, the future and the partial disintegration of the Rally. This is the hallmark of a good politician. I hold no rancour against him for that. This is good politics, to slip the opposition. When we came to be sworn in here on 11 May 1989 I had no adequate knowledge of that discussion at that time, and the
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