Page 5237 - Week 17 - Thursday, 13 December 1990
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
MS FOLLETT: Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I will say it again: half of the Cabinet is leaving Australia for a period of up to two months, as I understand it. I do not believe that that situation would exist in any other parliament in this country. In drawing attention to the fact that half of the Cabinet is departing, Mr Wood has quite rightly pointed to that as a matter of public importance.
The second issue involved is the manner in which they are going. Repeatedly in question time over the past several weeks the Chief Minister has been asked about the leave arrangements. He has never given a full answer on that matter. In fact, when he was first questioned about it, he obviously had no idea whatsoever that Mr Humphries was planning a long holiday. So the manner of the Ministers' departure is also a bit of a worry.
We saw today in question time, now that we know that two of the Cabinet will be absent, Mr Kaine totally unwilling to advise this Assembly of what ministerial arrangements will apply in the absence of half the Cabinet. I believe that that is also an unprecedented approach to this issue; it is an approach that I find quite reprehensible. Mr Kaine eventually had dragged from him the fact that Mr Duby would be acting as Minister for Health, Education and the Arts.
That brings me to the next major difficulty and the next major issue which does indeed make this a matter of public importance, and that is not just who is going but who will be left behind. That is probably the issue that most worries the ACT community. Mr Kaine has most reluctantly let us know now that Mr Duby will be acting as Minister for Health and Education in particular. This is a Minister who has proved himself unable to abide by the law, who ought to have been sacked, as Mr Kaine well knows, and now, at a period of such great sensitivity in those portfolios, he will be taking charge of them. I believe that that fact alone is enough to engender in the community the greatest disquiet about the absence from Australia of both Mr Kaine and Mr Humphries.
Mr Collaery: I raise a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. I am not prepared to let go into the Hansard of this house a statement that a Minister is not prepared to abide by the law. If Ms Follett wants to withdraw that and correct it and be explicit about a law, she should do it. But she should not make that statement which is in futuro and implies that this Minister cannot abide by the law. It must be withdrawn, Mr Deputy Speaker. It is improper.
MS FOLLETT: Mr Deputy Speaker, my statement was that he had proved himself incapable of keeping to the law.
Mr Collaery: That is my very point, Mr Deputy Speaker. It is not specific. It is a scandalous allegation.
Mr Moore: Well, be specific.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .