Page 2417 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 7 August 1990
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Opposition. They obviously resolved some while ago that getting back into power was the most important consideration and it is appropriate - - -
Mr Wood: No. We resolved before the last election that we would not close schools.
MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Acting Speaker, can I have some silence. I heard Mr Wood - - -
Mr Wood: Not only that, we knew the facts. We knew the sums. This is not political opportunism.
MR HUMPHRIES: I heard Mr Wood in relative silence. I hope he gives me the same courtesy.
Mr Wood: If you keep yourself honest, I will be quiet. I just ask that you take me seriously. I mean what I say.
MR HUMPHRIES: I mean what I say, Mr Wood. Mr Acting Speaker, I mean what I say, too, when I say that those opposite are hypocrites. They are shame-faced hypocrites.
Mr Moore: On a point of order, Mr Acting Speaker; that is totally unacceptable and unparliamentary.
MR HUMPHRIES: I withdraw that. The Australian Labor Party is hypocritical. It is hypocritical in the extreme because all the arguments Mr Wood has used here today with such pomposity and with such deep-felt anxiety about the needs and the wants of children in the ACT could equally have been applied to decisions made previously by the Australian Labor Party. Not only by the Federal Government - - -
Mr Wood: We made those arguments to them. Did you know that? We made those arguments to them.
MR HUMPHRIES: I am not matched by decibels in this debate. Mr Acting Speaker, the fact is that all those arguments could have been put and were not put by members of the ALP sitting opposite. How many demonstrations was Mr Wood involved with against the previous Government school closures? How many demonstrations did you march along to, Mr Wood?
Mr Wood: I was with the Teachers Federation and I was out with them.
MR HUMPHRIES: Not one. Out with them. Not one. What were you doing when your Minister for Education in your ALP Government in the ACT announced the preschools were going to close at the end of last year? Where were you then? You were supporting the line - you were running the line. You were defending Mr Paul Whalan when he announced he was going to close preschools.
Mr Wood: Yes, I was.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .