Page 2355 - Week 08 - Friday, 21 June 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
MR BERRY: It is very clear that in recent days Mr Duby told Mr Humphries that he was one of his supporters, and yet today he has done a turnaround. Mr Deputy Speaker, if that is not devious, nothing is.
I say that we are presented with a problem which has to be addressed if this Assembly is to retain any of its credibility and to offer the people of the ACT an effective opposition. Clearly, the Residents Rally is no longer effective as a political unit in this Assembly. It cannot produce the goods; it has shown that. It is highly criticised in the community. It has nowhere to go.
The Independents, the No Self Government people - whatever you like to call them - are no longer effective in this Assembly, and they have proven that they are prepared to betray the electorate at every turn. That is what they have done on this occasion. They have said that they wanted the position of Leader of the Opposition on the basis that that person would, as far as we were concerned, be an effective Leader of the Opposition and one who was prepared to put their shoulder to the wheel for the people of the ACT - an effective opposition to test the Government.
Immediately their nominee was elected, he made it clear to this Assembly that not only would he not assume the title but also he would not do the work and would distribute the money for other purposes. That is not what the position of Leader of the Opposition was decided upon in this Assembly for. It was decided upon because of the convention of the Leader of the Opposition being held in high regard by members of this Assembly - for no other reason. That is why the Labor Party supports the convention, and that is why the Labor Party will be supporting this motion to maintain the convention of a proper position of Leader of the Opposition.
We will not be party to, or accept, shonky arrangements such as have been demonstrated in this house today. It brings this place again into disrepute. We have to restore normality. It is not normally our wish to get involved in the determination of the Leader of the Opposition and we restrained ourselves, as is the convention, when this matter went to the vote this afternoon. But, as we first did in this Assembly, we support the establishment of a strong and effective opposition. We will continue to do that. The chicanery today has not produced a strong Opposition Leader; nor will it supply an effective one, because it is clearly the intention of the person who won the position not to do the job and not to deliver what the people of the Australian Capital Territory deserve.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .