Page 3394 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 17 September 1991
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MR DUBY (5.21): Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, I must respond to this unwarranted outburst. I have never heard such a load of claptrap in all my life. Members can be assured that I will not continue this debate much further. However, I must answer and refute some of the misconceptions of what I stated in the original in-principle debate that are clearly held by Mr Moore. Mr Moore, in the in-principle debate, raised the issue that this matter of varying the supposedly free level of water - supposedly free, I repeat - that is supplied could be treated by a government as a revenue issue. I suggested to Mr Moore that nothing could be further from the case; that this was a conservation issue.
Mr Moore: Wrong.
MR DUBY: It clearly is a conservation issue, Mr Moore; I can assure you of that. According to the argument that Mr Moore puts forward, that then implies that we should not listen to what those who are expert in a particular area advise the appropriate Minister to do - advice as to what action the Government should seriously contemplate and implement if it is decided, in the political sense of things, that that is the way to go.
According to Mr Moore's argument we would not, for example, have a third-party insurance premium advisory committee because that clearly is something that can be determined by this Assembly. We do not need to listen to the experts on levels of third-party insurance premiums; let the Assembly decide; we are experts on that level. According to his argument, the Government would not listen to good advice about levels of fees and charges for motor vehicle registration, or a whole range of issues that apply to imposts on the community.
The simple fact is that Mr Moore has been caught short. He tried to make out that this is a revenue issue. He has tried to make that out in the press releases that he has issued in the last couple of days. As usual, you have tried to grandstand. You have tried to grandstand for your leafy layabouts in Reid. That is what you have tried to do, because they have all complained to you, "How are we going to water the garden?". That is what it boils down to. I can read you like a book, Mr Moore. If this has nothing to do with conservation - - -
Mr Moore: Your reading level must be about age two.
MR DUBY: In comparison, yes. I might not be able to read between the lines, but I can certainly diagnose the pictures, and that is exactly what has happened. This has been a grandstanding effort on your part. I can hear it now. When his neighbours come to him and complain, "Oh, Michael, how did you let that awful government introduce
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