Page 2617 - Week 09 - Thursday, 8 August 1991
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I totally agree that every member of this Assembly has bills to pay, some of which are certainly incurred because they are members of parliament. Some of them have economic problems, shall we say. However, there are many more with those problems in the general community. I do not think it is fair to say that the general community has to live within its means but we do not.
Mr Kaine said that I was doing it to be re-elected. If that was the case, why did I do the same thing in 1989, two years ago?
Mr Kaine: Why did you?
MR STEVENSON: Are you suggesting that it is long-term planning, Mr Kaine?
Mr Kaine: You are darned right.
MR STEVENSON: If it was long-term planning, why did the Liberal Party not, as they did recently, stand up and say that it was not a good time to take it when they went for a pay increase of between 40 and 140 per cent? I was the only member who campaigned against accepting that suggested huge pay rise which was asked for a very short time after we were elected.
Mr Moore: What are you talking about, Dennis? It is the same as everything else; you are misrepresenting and misconstruing in everything you do, Dennis. You are a fool.
MR STEVENSON: The requests that were made by the parties were all for amounts around that area.
Mr Kaine: And you are taking advantage of it now, are you not?
MR STEVENSON: Once again, it depends on what you mean by "advantage". The point is: Is it correct?
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, Mr Kaine, Mr Stevenson and Mr Moore! Mr Stevenson, would you address your remarks through the Chair, and would everyone else as well.
MR STEVENSON: The point is, Mr Deputy Speaker: Is it correct? The members will have an opportunity to say whether or not they went for that very large increase a short time after the Assembly was formed. If they suggest that they did not, I will certainly be happy to bring the records down and make the point at a later time.
I did not want to get into a slanging match here, but there have certainly been a lot of objections. The point that I make is that the ACT people have concerns about this; they do not want us to accept the pay rise, and under the circumstances, particularly when Rosemary Follett says that
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