Page 1674 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 30 April 1991
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MR SPEAKER: Order, Mr Wood, you have had your turn.
Mr Wood: I would have asked for an extension too.
MR SPEAKER: Mr Wood, I warn you. I have had enough of this rubbish. Listening to this debate in this chamber is an embarrassment.
Mr Wood: Two interjections. Nobody was warned when I was speaking.
MR SPEAKER: Mr Wood, I warn you.
MR MOORE (4.45): Mr Speaker, I think I should start my speech by reminding Mr Collaery of what Mr Connolly presented when he quoted from Sir Ivor Jennings on the matter of the responsibility of a Minister. He said:
If the Minister chooses, as in the large Departments inevitably he must, to leave decisions to civil servants, then he must take the political consequences of any defect of administration, any injustice to an individual or any policy disapproved by the House of Commons.
Mr Humphries: So why did not Mr Berry resign?
MR MOORE: The question here is not, as Mr Humphries interjects, "Why did not Mr Berry resign?". We have seen that Mr Bissett has offered his resignation. The question is: Why, under those circumstances, has not Mr Humphries had the same fortitude to offer his resignation?
Mr Speaker, I am taken back to a little before December 1989 when that report was provided by Mr Berry. Perhaps I ought to provide a little further answer on: Why did not Mr Berry resign? Perhaps the answer to that question is that the time had not yet come for Mr Berry to resign. No doubt it could well have arrived, and I am quite happy to say that. Mr Berry identified the problems, with a great deal of help from Mr Humphries. I will bring back that help from Mr Humphries. Mr Berry took the first stage, identified the problems, had the report prepared and got the report back. At that stage it would be important for - - -
Ms Follett: He did not get the report.
MR MOORE: Ms Follett interjects, and quite rightly so, that Mr Berry did not actually get the report. The report went to Minister Humphries. But Mr Berry had put that procedure in motion. Once Mr Berry had received that report, if he had then failed to act accordingly that would have been the appropriate time for him to resign. Whether he would or would not have been able to respond effectively to that report is a matter for conjecture. Whether Mr Humphries has effectively responded to that report is a
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