Page 2258 - Week 08 - Thursday, 7 June 1990
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Even the media acknowledges that. They get a very straight answer sometimes, and it is not always politically astute for the Chief Minister to be so straight on issues.
But he is very straight on issues, and his company, in that respect, is always enjoyable. He plays a straight bat in the joint party room and in Cabinet. He is a man of unquestionable integrity. It is quite improper to attack a person who has reached perhaps the zenith of his political career. I would not be surprised if he made a good Federal Prime Minister.
Members interjected.
MR COLLAERY: It is not that we are pushing him that way, but the fact of the matter is, if you look at the image of politicians in this country today, Mr Kaine cuts a very good figure indeed. In my view, it is improper of Mr Stevenson to attack the Chief Minister's integrity in a polemical argument about a vote.
Let me come to that vote, Mr Speaker. I will move on to this allegation of a lack of credibility. Those quotations by Mr Stevenson were all made in relation to a debate that preceded the formation of the Alliance Government. You have all heard, very clearly, the acceptable explanation of what forming an alliance involves. It involves the parties putting aside their single agendas and forming a corporate approach to government. As it turns out, and as we witness even in today's media, this is a very balanced government. We can attend to social equity and justice concerns in the Territory and we can get on with reasoned development.
The fact is that Mr Stevenson provided no evidence on the credibility issue. I took notes, and I do not know what his allegation of a lack of credibility is about other than his constant quoting from a debate that took place before we formed government. We have heard Mr Kaine say ad nauseam that, were the Liberals in power, they would have proceeded to apply their policy. Those of us who belong to other political movements could say the same at times, and this is the price of it. I am sure that those members opposite me who exist in different Labor factions well know these compromises in government. Need I say more?
Mr Stevenson referred also to the extreme hypocrisy of the Chief Minister. When Mr Trevor Kaine spoke in those debates he spoke as Trevor Kaine, Leader of the Liberal Party, not as Chief Minister of this Territory. These proceedings today will, no doubt, again be publicised across the country, and that is a miserable result for the Chief Minister and for this Assembly as a whole, considering the seven hard months that we have put in here in recent times.
I say to Mr Stevenson through you, Mr Speaker, that this is a democratic system - it even allows a place for a representative who seeks its abolition - but this Assembly
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