Page 2234 - Week 07 - Thursday, 6 June 1991

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government, those very meetings where both Mr Collaery and Mr Jensen said, "If this is going to be the circumstance, we can no longer be part of this Government". The rest of the group said, "So be it". So, this is all baloney about, "I never knew that I was going to get sacked"; "I never knew that we were going to get booted"; "I never knew that we were going to get the chuck".

Mr Moore: Who said that?

MR DUBY: The question is, "Who said that?". I have heard a number of times, Bernard, that you have said quite categorically, "I never knew that I was going to get sacked".

Mr Collaery: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker.

MR DUBY: Mr Speaker, on a number of occasions Mr Collaery has said, "I never knew that I was going to get sacked". The fact of the matter is that Mr Collaery and Mr Jensen resigned from this Government on the Tuesday evening. There is no question about it.

Mr Moore: It was just his negotiating style.

MR DUBY: That was subsequently borne out. The comment, that it was just a negotiating style, has subsequently been borne out by discussions that I have had with the president of the Residents Rally; nevertheless, I am still greatly disappointed that somehow this Alliance Government has come to an end, and it clearly has, by the look of things.

Mr Speaker, I cannot wait for the nominations for the new Chief Minister. It is going to be a lot of fun, is it not, folks? Anyone with a sensible head can work out what is going to happen. The logical thing is that, if Ms Follett can move a no-confidence motion against this Government, she should be the new leader of the ACT Government. So be it. That is the Labor Party's position. That is what its members have worked very hard to do. That is their job - to try to achieve government - and they have been effective in doing that. But I cannot wait for the machinations that are going to occur come the vote for Chief Minister, because I know and you know and everyone here knows, including all the people in the gallery, that some enormous surprises are going to be sprung on us.

Mr Moore: Will you join me, Craig?

MR DUBY: I have heard a call from Mr Moore, saying, will I join him? Mr Moore, I am flexible. The remarkable thing is, of course, that we are in this position; and we are in this position for no other reason, it appears to me - and I will say this to Bernard, I will say this to Norm and I will say it to Hector - than because of a fit of pique. The bottom line is that somehow all this has stemmed from the fact that Mr Collaery never got the opportunity to resign.


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