Page 1957 - Week 06 - Thursday, 2 May 1991
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MR WOOD: That is the point I am making; that the situation has not changed today. Labor leaders are condemned at the time; it is only in retrospect that it can be seen how wise and sensible they were. Mr Chifley was reviled in 1949 by large sections of the community because of his proposal to nationalise the banks; and we are very often reviled today because of our policies, and it is only in retrospect that many people will concede that they are indeed sensible.
Mr Chifley was a person who was very sympathetic to the social service needs of the community. He was one who intervened in society to see that those people who were not as well-off as they perhaps should have been were assisted by government. Again, I recall in that 1949 election campaign how complaints came into our letterbox - which was the way that such material was disseminated - about the way that Chifley was going to hand out money all over the countryside.
There is a great deal that I could say about Chifley. All of us on this side of the house - my Labor colleagues certainly - hold him in great respect. But I will conclude, for Mr Collaery's sake, with one quotation, because over and over again in this house he has shown that he has never understood how the Labor Party operates - bearing in mind his own political experiences. These words were said at the 1945 conference of the Labor Party:
Solidarity is a very hackneyed word, but a very great word in the cause for which we are fighting. I believe I speak with some knowledge when I say that the party I have the honour to lead on your behalf in the Federal Parliament has been a remarkably solid party. We have differences. That is quite all right. We do not want a mutual admiration society.
Maybe you will understand that one day.
Oxygen Supplies : Acting Director of Pathology
MR BERRY (4.34): I rise to speak briefly on a sobering matter, but one which has to be brought to the attention of this Assembly. I refer to Mr Humphries' performance in health. Two and a half months ago Mrs Jenny Sieler wrote to the Minister and complained that her husband was dying of cancer and did not have long to live. She was asking the Minister to provide oxygen so that her husband could keep working instead of going into hospital.
Mr Humphries: That is not true. It is untrue, Wayne, and you know it.
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