Page 2356 - Week 08 - Thursday, 7 June 1990
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Mr Jensen: On a point of order, Mr Speaker; I would have thought that standing order 54, dealing with offensive language, would have applied in that case.
MR MOORE: Do not be ridiculous.
Mr Jensen: Or 55, dealing with personal reflections.
MR MOORE: I have not used any offensive language at all, Mr Speaker. "Revolting" is hardly offensive.
MR SPEAKER: Order! The member became excited. Please retain your cool, Mr Moore. Please proceed.
MR MOORE: Mr Speaker, I hope that you will look carefully at parliamentary practice after this session, and you will have two months to do so. As I started to say, the situation that was handled very well with the Chief Minister I believe could have been handled equally well with Mr Berry. I suggest that, in the earlier stage when there was an attempt to move dissent from the Chair's ruling, it should have been the member's prerogative to so move. I believe that is an area that you will need to look at very carefully. There certainly was a ruling - Hansard will show it - but the situation certainly needs to be cleared if this Assembly is to work well.
It is not good enough for the Government simply to use its numbers to bully its way through. By and large, Mr Speaker, you have not allowed that during the year or so of your Speakership, and we would expect that to continue. Clearly, if there is dissent from the Chair's ruling, then it must be the prerogative of members on this side of the house to move a substantive motion and to be able to speak to it accordingly. That provides time for tempers to cool and for the matter to be debated in an appropriate manner.
I think that the handling today of the Chief Minister and then the very different handling of Mr Berry was an unsatisfactory situation. After the Government has had time to think about this matter and to look at it in perspective, as I would expect from most members in the Government, I believe that we should reconsider the motion, as indeed the Chief Minister had time to reconsider his apology. If Mr Berry were prepared to write to the Speaker and withdraw his accusation of reprehensible conduct or whatever it was, I believe that we should consider reversing the motion that we have carried. That was done at the end of a long, hard day, at the end of a long sitting session.
Rulings from the Chair
MR DUBY (Minister for Finance and Urban Services) (6.40): Mr Speaker, for Mr Moore to compare the behaviour of the Chief Minister with that of Mr Berry is absolutely - - -
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