Page 2842 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 15 August 1990
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Ms Follett: On a point of order, Mr Speaker: what is the relevance of his remarks?
MR COLLAERY: Joan of Arc gets to her feet, Mr Speaker, to defend her troops.
MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Collaery, please do not speak over me. Now proceed.
Ms Follett: Have you ruled on my point of order?
MR SPEAKER: I believe that was not a valid point of order. Please proceed, Mr Collaery.
MR COLLAERY: Mr Berry's proposed amendments are merely an attempt to make section 65 mean what he wants it to mean. Mr Speaker, as we have noticed in recent times, he ignores facts. He has no knowledge of fact or veracity on any number of issues. He simply wants a standing order to do what he says it should do. Heaven forbid, if this Stalinist group were in power at the moment! The responsible course of action for the Assembly is not to expose itself to the risk of our laws being passed contrary to the Federal law but rather to seek a consensus as to what the law should say.
We on this side of the house have indicated that we are prepared to accept arguments for the amendment of section 65, and we are prepared, subject to the Administration and Procedures Committee's deliberations, to see whether section 65 should be amended to make it more in line with section 56 of the Commonwealth Constitution and, I believe, standing orders of the House of Representatives.
Mr Speaker, clearly, the energies of this Assembly would be better placed debating the substance of the Bill, but Opposition members have not wanted to debate it yet. They declined the opportunity when they introduced the Bill. They did not want to debate it then, and they really do not want to debate their Bill today. They are desperate.
Last night, Mr Speaker - you were not here - we heard the Leader of the Opposition say to Mr Wood when he walked in, "You are going to speak on this". Mr Wood was ordered to speak on education, and up he jumped, and out the torrent fell.
Mr Berry: He could just stick to the issues that are under debate.
MR SPEAKER: Please remain relevant, Mr Collaery.
MR COLLAERY: I thank Mr Berry for the break. Mr Speaker, there is a clear difference between the wording of a similar provision in the Federal Constitution, section 56, and that in, for example, section 11 of the Northern Territory (Self-Government) Act. It is this difference
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .