Page 2338 - Week 08 - Friday, 21 June 1991
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would become irrelevant and insignificant. He stated that the Rally would supplant it as the second party in this set-up and that it would be, in fact, the real opposition.
Mr Collaery: It will.
MR STEFANIAK: Bernard, you were wrong then and you are wrong now. You have about 3 per cent of the vote. The Liberal Party is a major party in Australia; it is a major party in Canberra; and really, I think, Bernard, you will find yourself probably back full time at the law, come February, along with the rest of your party.
Mr Berry: Would he get full-time work in it here, in the ACT?
MR STEFANIAK: I do not know, Mr Berry. At any rate, going back to what happened in the first Labor Government, despite the bombast of Mr Collaery then, it became painfully obvious after about six to eight weeks that the Liberal Party then was the Opposition, just as, regardless of what happens here tonight and regardless of what farces we went through this afternoon, the Liberal Party is the main opposition in this Assembly and will be the Opposition in this Assembly.
Mr Connolly: For many years to come.
MR STEFANIAK: Not necessarily, Mr Connolly, because after you people make a total stuff-up of everything, I am sure we will be voted in.
Mr Kaine: We were about to say "for the next fortnight".
MR STEFANIAK: Yes, or at least until Sunday. At any rate, whilst this Assembly lasts and whilst the second Follett Government remains as the Government, the Liberal Party will be the Opposition. I cannot see any reason why anything will be different from the situation when we had the first Follett minority Government. When one takes all those matters into account, this is a timely motion, given the events of today.
I note with interest Mr Stevenson's comments and the comments made by people in relation to the form of government in the ACT. Some very valid comments were made by members on that. But the fact of the matter is that we are a Westminster type of set-up. That is what we have been given in the self-government Act, and that really necessitates that this motion be supported in the interests of stable government and stable opposition in this Territory. It is something that I think the people are crying out for.
If Mr Collaery believes that he is going to get back in at the next election, he is deluding himself, because the vast majority of the people I speak to are absolutely sick and tired of the shenanigans in this Assembly, and a lot of the
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