Page 3707 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 17 October 1990
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Dear Mr Kaine,
Thank you for your letter of 16 October in which you state that Canberra does not have a tradition of granting the freedom of the city to individuals. Your kind invitation -
Mr Speaker, that is a reference to your kind invitation on behalf of the Assembly -
to Mr Mandela to attend a reception at the Assembly to be held in his honour was immediately conveyed to the National Nelson Mandela Reception Committee in Sydney and late yesterday afternoon we spoke to Mr Eddie Funde, the ANC Australian and Pacific representative who met with you earlier this year -
he did meet with me; it was a great pleasure to have him come and visit me -
and he confirmed that unfortunately there will simply not be time for Mr Mandela to call in at the Assembly. He very much regrets that this is so, but hopes that you will understand that, as Mr Mandela is only in Canberra for one day, and is a guest of the Federal Government, his program has already been fully committed for that day. Mr Funde would be grateful if you would ensure that the Legislative Assembly is made aware of the committee's regrets that Mr Mandela's program cannot be altered so as to be able to attend the proposed reception.
Yours sincerely -
and it is signed by the secretary of the Luthuli Group of Canberra. This matter could have been resolved yesterday and the cheap attempt at political point scoring this morning would have been totally avoided. We would all have been better off and Mr Mandela would have been received here with the general feeling of this Assembly and of the community, with some sense of honour and dignity. I think the debate this morning has in fact detracted from that.
MS FOLLETT (Leader of the Opposition) (11.43): I rise to close the debate on this matter, and I must say I have found it an extraordinarily disappointing debate.
Mr Kaine: She wants to get it off the record as quickly as she can now.
Mr Humphries: I was not aware that the debate had closed, and I would very much like to contribute to the debate before it closes.
MS FOLLETT: Well, you will have to be quicker. I have already sat down once.
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