Page 5240 - Week 17 - Thursday, 13 December 1990
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MR KAINE (Chief Minister) (5.05): I have only about two minutes, I think, so I will not say a great deal. The one thing that I will say is that I simply have great difficulty in believing that these people opposite can be so mean, so ungenerous and so petty-minded as to suggest that Ministers should not take reasonable leave, and Mr Wood said - - -
Mr Wood: I did not suggest that at all.
MR KAINE: Mr Wood said, and I quote - - -
Mr Wood: That was not my suggestion.
MR KAINE: Mr Wood said - - -
Mr Wood: No, you stick to the facts. That was not my suggestion.
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, Mr Wood! He is going to quote.
MR KAINE: He said, and I quote, Mr Deputy Speaker: "It is not acceptable that they should be away".
Mr Wood: Two people away for seven weeks.
MR KAINE: Mr Wood, you said, "It is not acceptable that they should be away". I would submit, Mr Deputy Speaker, that we, like everybody else, are entitled to take some reasonable leave. For myself, I am taking no more leave that any public servant in this town would take under the same circumstances. Yet we have this mean, petty, ungenerous approach. I must say that I am most disappointed.
I think that I know what this is all about. The people opposite are troubled that I am still held in very high regard by this community and they are trying to find some way to destroy me. Well, it will not work, because people know me too well. They do not accept the pettiness and the approach that you are taking to this matter. Ms Follett talked about people who should be sacked. The only Ministers who should have been sacked were sacked and they are sitting over there. That is the end of that argument.
Mr Deputy Speaker, I think I have about 15 seconds left. I would like to conclude by saying that I hope that the other members of this Assembly enjoy their Christmas breaks. I am not going to deny them any break. I hope that they enjoy it, and I wish them and their families a very happy Christmas. I hope that it is a good time for them, that they enjoy their break, and that they all have a most prosperous 1991 for themselves and their families. I think, Mr Deputy Speaker, that that really ought to be the end of the debate.
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: Thank you, Chief Minister. That is indeed the end of the debate because the time for the discussion has now elapsed.
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