Page 280 - Week 01 - Thursday, 14 February 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
comments there, because it seems to suggest to me that Mr Collaery was saying that there were some parasites just waiting to get stuck into the money supply that would flow as a result of a royal commission. I bet Mr Collaery did not think about apologising for that, and I bet the bar were not particularly impressed with those sorts of comments appearing in the Canberra Times.
Mr Stefaniak: They are pretty thick skinned, Wayne.
MR BERRY: Mr Stefaniak said that they are pretty thick skinned. Those things go close to the bone, and I do not think they need to be said by somebody in the position of Attorney-General. All of these events point to the reasons for these changes in legislation. Mr Collaery, of course, was working closely with Mr Dowd in New South Wales and was very comfortable to work with him. It made it very clear that this was a conservative move and reflected the old contests between the conservatives and the trade union movement. Mr Collaery was swept up in the move against those workers in New South Wales.
By 27 July Mr Collaery now favoured the idea. He had gone from a stage where he thought it might be a good idea to a stage where it might not be a good idea because it might be too costly. He hedged his bets a bit, and by the 27th he was reported as favouring it. Of course, at that point the New South Wales Premier Nick Greiner had said that he would not object to the ACT joining the inquiry. He cited Canberra's new Parliament House costing $400m more than necessary as one of the reasons. He said that ACT Government officials had asked for permission to take part in the building inquiry.
The truth starts to come out now as to where Mr Collaery is coming from. At first it was just a whim; then it was a very clear indication that Mr Collaery had made a specific request to join the New South Wales Government inquiry to get stuck into building industry unions. It is not surprising that the next person to jump on the bandwagon was Mr Howard, the Federal member for Bennelong. He gets stuck into the Building Workers Industrial Union as well - all accusations, I should say, which are not supported by any evidence, which is typical. He goes on to say:
Builders and tradesmen privately are accusing the BWIU of behaviour at least as bad as that which - - -
Mr Collaery: On a point of order: I let Mr Berry go. Whatever Mr Berry thinks of it, there is a royal commission extant in New South Wales. I draw your attention to page 494 of House of Representatives Practice. Mr Berry is saying that there is no evidence of something. I believe that that is crossing the boundary. He is referring to the industry and he is making determinative statements in this chamber about a matter before a royal commission. I ask that he be careful with his further comments.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .