Page 4671 - Week 16 - Tuesday, 27 November 1990
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Mr Kaine: You do not mind throwing that one around yourself, but you object when somebody throws it at you.
MR BERRY: It is ruled in order.
MR SPEAKER: Order!
MR BERRY: So, on the evidence that is in front of this place the Chief Minister obviously cannot be trusted to make statements which relate to the facts. The submission process in relation to the CDF was under way. Mr Speaker, how can a fund set up to be spent on community groups be stripped? It was not something that the Follett Government was able to do. All of the money was to be allocated to community groups. This Chief Minister obviously does not know what he is talking about.
MR CONNOLLY: Mr Speaker, I table the following document, as requested by the resolution of the house:
Royal Canberra Hospital - Copy of letter from Mr J. Bissett to Dr N. Barwick, dated 16 November 1990, concerning comments made during a radio interview.
MR SPEAKER: The point is that if it is to be tabled perhaps the names should be blanked out.
Mr Moore: No, it was tabled on a motion of the house. It is now a public document.
MR SPEAKER: Okay.
MR CONNOLLY: I agree not to unnecessarily introduce the names in a debate.
MR SPEAKER: Thank you.
MR HUMPHRIES (Minister for Health, Education and the Arts): Mr Speaker, I have to say that I am not mollified by the letter that Mr Connolly has tabled in response to the request for a withdrawal that I made earlier. I seek Mr Connolly's withdrawal of the remarks he made earlier on. I consider them unparliamentary, and I do not believe that the tabling of this letter satisfies any of the defence that Mr Connolly sought to put up in that regard. I seek leave to back up the statement that I made before, that Mr Connolly had certainly used unparliamentary descriptions of me in suggesting that I or my department - I think those were his words - might use defamation proceedings as a way of silencing critics.
Mr Collaery: Public servants.
MR HUMPHRIES: Silencing public servants who were critics.
Mr Moore: Here is proof.
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