Page 2160 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 29 May 1991

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .


MR DUBY: Those Bills will undoubtedly come before this Assembly, and undoubtedly the Residents Rally members will support them. For all intents and purposes, they will be Mr Collaery's Bills. The Youth Advocate has been established.

In areas of law he has achieved many areas of reform. There has been landlord and tenant legislation. He has restructured the courts. He has looked at reform of the defamation area. He is in the process of establishing the equivalent of an ICAC in the ACT.

In areas of health he has been involved in mental health reform; he has established a crisis service; he has established halfway houses for disabled persons; he has initiated reforms in the Belconnen remand area; and he has provided support for AIDS sufferers.

In housing, he has taken many initiatives. He has brought in the tenants purchase scheme. Under Mr Collaery's management of the housing portfolio there has been the vast expansion of the number of aged persons units in the Territory. He has also been involved with joint initiatives between the Housing Trust and developers to enable more public housing to be provided to those in need. By the way, he has also been involved very much in fixing up the Bruce Stadium mess which he inherited from you lot over there.

So, let us not put the boot into Mr Collaery, and let us not put the boot into the Rally members in terms of what they may or may not have done. Many positive things have occurred under Mr Collaery's management as a Minister and under the support and, indeed, initiative on many occasions of the other members of the Rally. It is unfortunate, and I am sorry the situation has now arrived, that those members of the Rally are now unable to be members of the Alliance Government, for whatever reason. I frankly will be sorry to see them go. I certainly liked and enjoyed the relationship that I had established with Mr Collaery, in particular, and with the other members of the Rally.

Much has been made of this issue that "He was sacked" and therefore that is somehow dramatically different from him having taken the noble course and resigned. Let us make one thing perfectly clear: Mr Collaery and Mr Jensen, in particular, and undoubtedly I would say Dr Kinloch, from his statement today - he said that he was aware of what was happening on Tuesday - took a view about a particular issue which they knew would be at odds with the majority of the rest of the members of the Government, and they stuck to their guns. They knew what it would lead to; they knew that perfectly well.


Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .