Page 2360 - Week 08 - Friday, 21 June 1991
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MR PROWSE: Mr Deputy Speaker, may I speak further on this?
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: You have to seek leave to speak. If the members give you leave to speak, you can.
Leave granted.
MR PROWSE: In my statement, I was referring to previous threats which, in fact, caused - as we all recall - the fall of the Follett Government in the first instance. They were previous threats that I was talking about, and that is - - -
Mr Duby: Back in December 1989.
MR PROWSE: That is right. So, what I am saying is that, on previous occasions, when anyone has asked me to vote in a particular way as Speaker, I have always played it down the line and brought it to the attention of the Assembly, and the result has occurred therefrom. That is what I was talking about as far as other threats go.
MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General, Minister for Housing and Community Services and Minister for Urban Services) (8.49): I do not want to enter into the politics of this debate, tempting though it may be. I do wish to make a statement, in effect, in the role as a law officer. Mr Collaery was making a suggestion that Mr Stefaniak's motion - your motion, Mr Deputy Speaker - would be invalid and have no effect because, as he put it, there is no vacancy in the office of Leader of the Opposition, the Leader of the Opposition having been duly elected pursuant to standing orders.
The position, of course, is that the Leader of the Opposition is an office, a creation of a statute or a creation of the standing orders. That has been referred to today by those who would abolish the office and who had no doubt that a resolution abolishing those standing orders would effectively abolish the office. It is abundantly clear that the motion moved by Mr Stefaniak omits standing orders 5A and 5B, therefore abolishing the office. There then being no Leader of the Opposition, it substitutes a new 5A which provides, as is before us, that the Leader of the Opposition shall be the leader of the largest non-government party.
Therefore, it is abundantly clear that, if this motion is carried by the Assembly this evening, the position of Leader of the Opposition presently held by Mr Duby ceases to exist; Mr Duby ceases to hold that office; and the person elected as leader by the largest non-government party, the Liberal Party leader, Mr Humphries, would hold the office. There can be no doubt as to the legality of this motion.
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