Page 1432 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 1 May 1990
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MR SPEAKER: Order! The time for the discussion has expired.
Suspension of Standing and Temporary Orders
MR COLLAERY (Deputy Chief Minister): Mr Speaker, I move that Mr Humphries have leave to speak for five minutes on this topic.
Mr Berry: On a point of order, Mr Speaker; one would expect that the deputy leader opposite would be able to put a motion in the proper form.
MR SPEAKER: Mr Collaery, would you rephrase that.
MR COLLAERY: I move:
That so much of the standing and temporary orders be suspended as would prevent Mr Humphries speaking for five minutes on the matter.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
MR HUMPHRIES (Minister for Health, Education and the Arts) (4.50): Mr Speaker, I do not propose to use more than the full five minutes that I have generously been given by the house. I do not think the issue really has the heat in it that the opposition would make us think it has. Certainly, the capacity to whip up the issue into something terrible and heinous on the part of this Government by members of the opposition cannot be underestimated, but I am confident that the decisions that we make in relation to matters such as this are the right ones and will be seen as such by the people of the ACT at the next election. They are sometimes difficult decisions; I acknowledge that. Sometimes they cause pain. They sometimes cause particular people in particular categories of employment or places of residence or whatever in the ACT to be regretful. But I think we have to make the right decisions when they present themselves to us.
I have looked at the arguments that Mr Duby has presented for that decision and I am confident that it was the right one. It was not easy. I do not think Mr Duby imagined, when he made the decision, that he would be "Mr Popularity", necessarily, and for that reason - - -
Mr Duby: The most hated man.
MR HUMPHRIES: "The most hated man", he says. But I think he has to be given credit for having made a difficult decision. It was difficult, but it had to be made.
I want to address a few very difficult issues which were raised by the opposition but which ought to be rejected.
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