Page 3852 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 16 October 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Yesterday at the rally for those three schools, the cat was well and truly let out of the bag on one aspect of this. There were statements made that I think were shameful, and they were made, appallingly, by the Bishop of Canberra and Goulburn. Bishop Dowling should be ashamed of himself because he attacked the general Canberra community. He did it in two ways, the former less shameful than the latter. I will deal with the first one first. That was when he said that these schools were striving for excellence but that they were being punished. The implication in that clearly was that all other schools are not striving for excellence. That is an indirect attack on all other non-government schools and the government schools.
But let us take the direct attack on the whole of Canberra, on the children of Canberra who do not go to these three schools. Bishop Dowling said:
... you might as well give up and just join the general hoi polloi ...
What does "hoi polloi" mean? It means the common people, according to the Macquarie Dictionary. But it gets even better. In the thesaurus "hoi polloi" means multitude, plebs, small fry, rabble, cattle, doggery, dregs of society, gutter, herd, mob, raff, ragtag and bobtail, scum, the great unwashed.
Mr Humphries: On a point of order, Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker: I take great exception to the comments that Mr Connolly is making about a leading cleric in this town. The comments that he is making are utterly disgraceful. Bishop Dowling has no seat in this Assembly and cannot defend himself here. But the comments that Mr Connolly is making deserve to be rebutted. I ask you to direct Mr Connolly not to continue to make those comments, and to withdraw them.
MADAM TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: I disagree with you, Mr Humphries. He is quoting, from a dictionary, what a word means.
Mr Humphries: He is putting words in the bishop's mouth, Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker.
MADAM TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: I understand from a tape that "hoi polloi" is exactly the term that was used. I do not think there is a point of order.
MR CONNOLLY: Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker, page one of the Canberra Times this morning states:
The message appeared to be -
and then it quotes Bishop Dowling -
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .