Page 2816 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 14 August 1991
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We have no difficulty with this disclosure. We get massive support from the trade union movement and we would not in any way be ashamed to announce the sort of support that we get. Of course, what would happen - the Liberals know it and, of course, it would affect the Labor Party as well - is that some of the big companies that donate to both parties would not donate at all. That would affect them. But it is an issue of disclosure. For Mr Stevenson, that is particularly pertinent because he would have to disclose where his funding is coming from as well. It is a great shame that Mr Stevenson did not disclose some of his other agenda items in the last election campaign. Perhaps people would have been able to see right through him and know what he was up to.
Anyway, those are the issues as I see them. It is important that we keep the focus on what this is really about. It is more about disclosure than anything else. Mr Stevenson should focus on that, instead of seizing on those populist issues and emotional issues which he has seized upon.
Mr Stevenson: I agree that the issues that I seize upon are popular. That is why I seize on them - the majority will.
MR BERRY: Populist and emotive - and they did not embrace all of the facts. As I said at the opening of my remarks, which I will draw to a close, the speech that he made was more memorable because of the things that he did not say than because of those that he did.
MR COLLAERY (4.13): Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, may I congratulate you on your first ascent to the chair.
Mr Wood: And your handling of the debate.
MR COLLAERY: Yes.
Mr Wood: I might start to interject a bit here, and see what I can get away with.
MR COLLAERY: I am indebted to Mr Wood for allowing me to catch my breath, because there have been some fairly breathtaking comments. I enjoyed the contortions of Mr Duby's argument; but, really, Dr Kinloch put the issue in its philosophical context, which involved a banning issue. At the same time, one has to be aware, of course, that there is a question of balance involved. If one reviews the practices of the other democracies - some commentators identify 19 such democracies; the Western democracies, if I can use that term - one sees that, if this ban proceeds, Australia and Norway will be the only two of the 19 leading Western democracies that allow neither paid political advertising nor free time.
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