Page 4835 - Week 16 - Thursday, 29 November 1990
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MR CONNOLLY: This churlish attack, this calling the Opposition the "dog in the manger", shows that he clearly did not listen. He will no doubt read Hansard later on and find out what actually happened. What actually happened was that Ms Follett welcomed the introduction of this Bill and congratulated the Government on it. She said, "I am genuinely pleased to see this legislation". As the Opposition, we made some comments that we would have preferred, perhaps, to have it introduced and then have a sufficient period of consultation before it is passed, but we had a genuine welcoming of progress.
We make the point that the progress, perhaps, would not have happened without the spur of the Opposition's private members' Bill, and that Bill was received in a churlish and "dog in the manger" manner by those opposite. At the time the Opposition's Bill was introduced, we said that we were doing it in the best interests of the Territory. We indicated that we would be happy to talk about possible amendments to the Bill. We indicated that we did not claim it to be the Bill in final form for passage. All we had was churlish and trite attacks, claims that the Opposition was merely copying what had been done in the Northern Territory.
In fact, there were substantial differences, particularly in relation to AIDS discrimination, which is an area that the Attorney-General has indicated is very important. He would have noted, if he had bothered to look, that the Opposition's Bill had made some significant amendments to the Northern Territory legislation in the area of AIDS discrimination.
But, as the Leader of the Opposition said, we welcome this development. We are pleased to see an anti-discrimination Bill at last, but it is unfortunate that the Chief Minister had to react in such an hysterical and, as I say, churlish fashion to the remarks of Ms Follett. As we said when first introducing our Bill - and I think the Attorney earlier made some conciliatory remarks here in relation to our Bill - we ought to have unanimity across the Assembly on the area of discrimination legislation.
In closing, I would also like to say that I am particularly pleased that this Bill does seem to have gone somewhat further than the Opposition's Bill in the area of AIDS discrimination. I am pleased that the important work of the Commonwealth Government's report on AIDS and discrimination is apparently reflected in this Bill. I should perhaps point out that I have a private interest there, as my wife was the author of that Commonwealth report.
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