Page 2349 - Week 08 - Friday, 21 June 1991
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Connolly has found that I was nominated by Mr Moore on 11 May for the office of Leader of the Opposition. As Mr Moore will readily attest, there was no prior consultation. It was a tactical reaction of Mr Moore's and, as he said later, "I feel no ill will at all about it at this stage". It was predictably lost, and the nomination was not spoken to or assented to by me.
Mr Humphries: Talk about sour grapes. You did not get it on 11 May, and that is why you are doing this.
MR COLLAERY: Mr Humphries seeks to take a point on it. Mr Moore can quite easily clarify that situation. These comments of mine follow the most specious and most illogically broken up speech that I have heard Mr Humphries give. He is an excellent university debater, and I have conceded that to him in the past in this chamber. But his speech was pure sophistry, and it did nothing to feed his apparent overweening ambition.
MR KAINE (8.16): It has occurred to me over the last 2 years that it is a most curious example of democracy in action in this new Assembly of ours. I have excused it on many occasions because it is going through a learning process. Some of the members here had not been exposed to the political arena before they were elected to this place, and some of them had not even been exposed to the administrative arena before they were elected to this place. So, we have gone through this learning process and some of us have learned a few things along the way.
This whole question of the Leader of the Opposition has been an interesting point of contention right from day one because, indeed, the self-government Act does not prescribe one. I point out that the circumstances under which the Commonwealth Parliament was established did not provide for a leader of an opposition either. But the Commonwealth Parliament has evolved in the form and format of the Westminster system and so we have a Leader of the Opposition in the Federal Parliament, and so we set about recreating that on a smaller scale here.
I know that some members of the Assembly have objected to that right from the beginning. In any case, we are now 2 years downstream. With all of the records that we have created in the evolution of this Assembly, today looks like going down in history as a rather unusual one for yet another reason: By the time we adjourn tonight there will have been three Leaders of the Opposition in this house in this one day - indeed, in half a day. My leader has just pointed out that there are still a few hours to go; we might have four before the day is out. I came into the chamber at 2.30 this afternoon and I was the Leader of the Opposition for about three minutes, until my resignation was accepted graciously by the Assembly and we then proceeded to elect another one - - -
Mr Duby: Democratically elected.
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