Page 2629 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 8 August 1990
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MR BERRY: Indeed, that is what I am doing, Mr Acting Speaker.
MR ACTING SPEAKER: Mr Berry, please confine your remarks to the motion and amendment.
MR BERRY: This is about the Government being wrong-footed and trying to recover the lost ground. Dr Kinloch, in his usual pious way, demonstrated it as being something that it was not. The fact of the matter is that Dr Kinloch himself has been done in the eye on this committee because he has not had the numbers, and now he wants to improve the situation so that it will not happen again to him. Well, I can tell you, Dr Kinloch, what we will set out to do on every occasion is to expose you for your position in this Assembly and the attitude that you have taken on issues such as health, education and the environment. That is why the Labor Party has moved to increase these numbers in order that the Opposition is equally represented on that committee, so that the Government is a little more nervous about the very important issues which that committee will consider and report on in this Assembly.
After all, Mr Acting Speaker, it is the Government that has the numbers and they are entitled to do what they like about the recommendations of that committee, but it is quite unfair, in my view, in this particular Assembly, given the lack of mandate by many of the members who have now formed the Government, that it reflects the views of the community. I am quite confident - and I think the community will agree with me - that the Labor Opposition better represents the view of the majority of the community than any of the people or any cadre of the people opposite can do. That is why I have moved the amendment to the motion.
MR HUMPHRIES (Minister for Health, Education and the Arts) (4.44): We have heard Mr Berry speak this afternoon about numbers on committees. Mr Berry knows all about numbers; he has been manipulating numbers very well for the last few days.
Mrs Grassby: You know them well, too. You are the only person in the Liberal Party who might understand numbers.
MR HUMPHRIES: I can see I am hitting a raw nerve here.
Mrs Grassby: You have done very well, Gary. You are a great numbers man yourself.
MR HUMPHRIES: I can see I am hitting a raw nerve. But the reality is that we all know that Mr Berry - - -
Mr Berry: On a point of order, I would be quite happy to debate the issue of management of numbers with Mr Humphries at any time. Maybe - - -
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