Page 35 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 12 February 1991
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saw what the Socialist Left did to France before the German invasion in the Second World War. We saw what the Blum Government produced in France - a lack of capacity to defend oneself, a lack of national resolve.
The thing that Mr Berry exemplifies most of all in this debate is the diffidence of the Left, the unsureness of it, and the fact that they are hooked to their ideological opponents. There is not one Labor party in this chamber, Mr Speaker; there are two. Much as they like to make fun of the Alliance on this side of the floor, Mr Berry clearly pointed up today what we in this country all now know - there is no united Labor Party. Mr Berry has dumped on his Prime Minister, and that is a shame. Whether we want to be led by that Prime Minister or not, on defence and foreign affairs issues the Constitution makes him leader and we in this house support him. We reject oppression. We reject weakness. We embrace all the notions of peaceful humanitarian response. But on this issue, clearly, we must support the majority of Australians.
MR CONNOLLY (4.08): Mr Speaker, I am going to speak only briefly in this debate. As has been said by Norm Jensen and repeated by Wayne Berry, war is a tragedy. War is always a tragedy. There is only one thing more tragic than that, and that is people seeking to make cheap political capital out of a war; and that is what this Government is doing. This Government, which is constitutionally charged with maintaining the peace, order and good government of the Australian Capital Territory, is not prepared to come into this chamber and debate local issues. It has made a mess of local issues; it continues to make a hash of local issues.
What it seeks to do in this cheap way is to engage in a stunt debate on a matter of foreign affairs, a matter on which this chamber, this Assembly, has not a whit of influence or constitutional responsibility. As the Attorney-General said, correctly, foreign affairs is solely and exclusively a preserve of the Federal Parliament. If this Assembly is going to repeatedly and regularly engage in foreign policy debates in order to divert attention from the important issues of the governance of this Territory, it is a sad, sad proposition.
This Government is attempting to portray the Labor Party, no doubt, if it opposes this motion, in a certain way. The view of the members of the Australian Labor Party in the Australian Capital Territory is as has been reported; they are opposed to the use of force. As a party representative, therefore, I will be voting against this motion. But the important point to make, Mr Speaker, is that this is a cheap and grubby little political stunt in order to try to show some form of division on this side of the chamber. Well, it is not going to work.
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