Page 2267 - Week 08 - Friday, 21 June 1991
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That is not the question. The question is whether he should have been party to this deal, hatched, I think, in the devious, furtive mind of Bernard Collaery, and put himself forward as a Leader of the Opposition.
Mr Collaery: I take a point of order.
MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Stefaniak, I would ask you to withdraw those last few words.
MR STEFANIAK: What would you like me to withdraw, Mr Speaker?
MR SPEAKER: Deceptive and furtive mind.
Mr Collaery: Devious.
MR STEFANIAK: I do not think I said "devious". I think I said "deceptive and furtive". If that offends the house, I will withdraw that, Mr Speaker.
MR SPEAKER: Thank you, Mr Stefaniak.
Mr Berry: It does not offend me.
MR STEFANIAK: I am sure it does not, Wayne.
I do not think that Mr Duby should have been party to this. This is another scheme of Mr Collaery's. Mr Collaery, of course, did not purport to be an alderman when he pranced around the countryside representing the Alliance Government as a Minister. He purported to be a Minister. He loved being Attorney-General. Now he would have us believe that he wants to go back to some council type of arrangement. He has now produced this blueprint for the future. But I think, as Mr Kaine said, that this is probably just another question of sour grapes on Mr Collaery's part.
Mr Collaery, of course, has never quite got over being kicked out of the Alliance Government, as the then Chief Minister most properly did. He has not forgiven the Liberal Party for that action. Accordingly, he torpedoed that Government on 6 June, and here he is having another snipe at the Liberal Party. I think it is just a case of pure spite.
This is a parliament. Whether it should or should not be a parliament is not in question; the fact of the matter is that it is. It sends Ministers around the countryside to represent the ACT at ministerial meetings; it attends the Premiers Conference; and accordingly, as is the convention with the Federal Parliament and the State parliaments, it has a Chief Minister and it has a Leader of the Opposition, and most properly so.
I would remind Mr Stevenson that the Federal Constitution does not provide for a Prime Minister and it does not provide for a Leader of the Opposition. Indeed, it does
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