Page 4194 - Week 14 - Thursday, 25 October 1990
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MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: I will make one ruling before I ask for some advice from the Clerk in relation to one of your points, Mr Berry. If there is any validity in the substantive point that you raise, that is something that will be looked at. Indeed, Mr Connolly, I think, mentioned that there is no doubt, if there is any contravention, that these two Ministers were acting in good faith. That being the case, I am certainly not going to request Mr Collaery, for example, to leave his seat today.
Mr Berry: No.
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: You are not asking for that?
Mr Berry: No, I am not asking you to do that.
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: Fine. In relation to whether the Speaker should get any legal advice, I refer you to page 228 of House of Representatives Practice, Mr Berry. It is not the duty of the Speaker to give a decision on or interpret a question of law.
Mr Berry: On a point of order: I am not asking you to do that, Mr Deputy Speaker. I am asking you to take advice on the matter and report to members of the Assembly.
Mr Collaery: On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker: if Mr Berry wants to make a substantive motion he can, but he has not.
Mr Berry: On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker: one point of order at a time, and mine was first.
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: I have not ruled on yours yet.
Mr Berry: Mine was first.
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: Yes, it was first. I will take advice.
Having received advice, I am quite happy to take the matter up with the Speaker who, I understand, is on the premises. My understanding is that the Speaker - or I in his position here - has no power to do anything about it, even if these two gentlemen were in breach of the law, Mr Berry.
Mr Berry: Mr Deputy Speaker, the difficulty that I have then is whether, on raising a point of order with you about the entitlement of members opposite to speak on a matter, it puts you in a position in which you have to make a decision one way or the other. If your ruling is, "Yes, they are entitled", I accept it. But it is under challenge. The option that I put to you, Mr Deputy Speaker, was that you take advice and perhaps advise us in due course.
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