Page 2366 - Week 08 - Friday, 21 June 1991
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Might I suggest that there would have been another precedent. We could have declared ourselves a committee of the whole, the members of the Government could have left, and the members remaining as an opposition -
that is, the 12 of us then and the 12 of us now -
could have spent an hour, two hours, three hours, four hours if necessary, discussing the nature of that proposal -
the proposal for a Leader of the Opposition -
and whether it was historically right and proper for that to proceed.
I certainly believe that it was not. What we - 12 of us - would have done by that precedent is that in a democratic procedure we would have chosen a Leader of the Opposition by majority vote. In a strange way, that is what we did this afternoon. We had a democratic procedure this afternoon. We had a number of ballots. Those ballots were properly conducted. There was a result of those ballots and Mr Duby was chosen. We did that properly.
What I very much object to is this strange subversion of the Westminster system. A few hours later - as Mr Kaine properly says, all this is happening in one afternoon - we suddenly find that people who could not accept a democratic decision are trying to overturn it. I very much resent that. I find it totally improper. I very much regret that we also have another part of our system in which the Speaker, unhappily, has a deliberative vote rather than a casting vote. However, that is the way of our standing orders; so be it.
I very much acknowledge and agree with Mr Collaery's earlier point today; that it would be better if the Speaker were in a neutral position, only in a casting vote position, rather than in a position to make a deliberative vote which, in effect, unfortunately becomes a party vote. So, we have a very strange, peculiar, unique, so-called precedent convention of our peculiar part of the Westminster system here of electing the Leader of the Opposition. I have always found it wrong. I found it wrong again today and out of keeping with the best traditions of that system.
I am distressed at the Liberal Party tonight - very distressed. I have said negative things about the Liberal Party earlier, over the past few weeks, as I have watched some very unfortunate things take place in that party. That is not my business here now. But I think that this is the most unfortunate of all. There has been a proper democratic decision in these strange circumstances and the Liberal Party would try to overthrow it by making use of the Government. I find that appalling.
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