Page 1694 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 29 May 1990
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I do not see there is much chance of that while we have got Ministers like the Chief Minister, Mr Kaine, who ignores these things; Mr Collaery over here, who ignores these things; Mr Duby over here, who does not care about the future of this Assembly because he is not coming back here and is not likely to resign; and Mr Humphries over here, who alleges that he will be back as a Liberal. Well, if his association with these sorts of people opposite is judged by the community, then I am sure he will not be back.
Mrs Nolan, in the light of the court matter, took the honourable course and stood down. Not surprisingly, with behaviour that could be considered honourable, she called for Mr Duby's resignation, and rightly so. According to the Canberra Times, she criticised her Alliance colleague Craig Duby for failing to step down as Minister for Finance and Urban Services after his conviction six weeks ago on a charge of refusing to undergo a breath analysis test, and she went on to say that it was her view that he should have taken similar action to that which she had taken.
I agree with that because Mr Duby has very serious responsibilities in relation to road safety in the ACT. But still, Mr Speaker, there has been not a sound from the Chief Minister, Trevor Kaine, about what is right and what is wrong. I think he knows what is right and what is wrong, but his Government is just hanging together and he is prepared to sacrifice Government responsibility and a bright future for the Assembly in the ACT because of his own personal wish for continued power. We know that Mr Kaine probably will not bother coming back next time either.
Mr Duby is the Minister responsible for transport and roads in the ACT and he is the person who is supposed to ensure safety on our roads. We have even got to the stage where the Canberra Times has called for Mr Duby's resignation, calling him a hypocrite. It is unheard of in recent times that one of the Assembly members would be called a hypocrite. There is plenty of reason to call Mr Duby a hypocrite in relation to his performance as a politician. Though nothing much has been said in the past, this issue has focused the media's attention on his outrageous behaviour, and the Canberra Times castigated the Chief Minister for his refusal to act. He was clearly accused of simply trying to hold onto power at any cost.
Again, the Canberra Times took the view that, by not forcing Mr Duby's resignation, the Government was seen to be accepting drink-driving and refusing a breath test as acceptable social conduct. For heaven's sake, I was talking to a senior police officer last night who was telling me about the effectiveness of random breath testing in the ACT. How can it ever be effective when a government which is just about to take over responsibility for police accepts it as normal behaviour for Ministers?
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