Page 1942 - Week 06 - Thursday, 2 May 1991
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MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Berry can get as agitated as he wants. There is no difference between those two cases. I think it is very clear, particularly to members of this Assembly and also obviously to those in the community who observe this debate, I should think with considerable uninterest, that there is absolutely no water to this argument.
I understand that Senator McMullan, who acts as Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer - something akin, I would have thought, to Executive Deputy - - -
Mr Kaine: Only more so.
MR HUMPHRIES: Only more so. I understand that he is holding an inquiry into ACT finances. Have you made your objections to that proposition to the Prime Minister or Mrs Kelly? Apparently not. Apparently it does not make any difference as far as the Federal Government is concerned, yet it does as far as the ACT Government is concerned. You are hypocrites. When you get down to the business of being consistent I will listen to what you have to say, but not before.
MR WOOD (3.41): This was one debate that I was determined not to enter. I recall that we have had it on a number of occasions. I claim credit for speaking first in this debate on the day this discredited Government was sworn in, or very shortly thereafter, when it became clear that the notion of Executive Deputies was not going to sit easily with the way that this chamber and its committees were run.
Mr Humphries has made some specific comments about my position as Cabinet Secretary - certainly an exalted title. My job was, I suppose, to double-check the Cabinet minutes which were prepared, as you would know, by an officer. As I sat in Cabinet, I used to peruse those minutes and formally sign them.
Mr Kaine: Were you involved in the debate, Bill? Did you participate in the debate? Did you participate in the debate in the Cabinet room?
MR WOOD: Yes, indeed. The difficulty goes back to the political problem at the time this Government was formed when, because of sudden changes - I may be wrong and he may correct me - the decision of Mr Duby to join the Government threw things into a state of confusion, and certain people who were on promises had to be found jobs; so, as I understand it, the notion of Executive Deputy was born.
Mr Humphries: You are fishing in the dark here, Bill.
MR WOOD: There may be another reason for it, and you may provide it. But the notion of Executive Deputies has changed a little. We now have two Executive Deputies, whereas at the outset of this Government we had four.
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