Page 4041 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 22 October 1991
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MR BERRY: What they are talking about is a misleading of the Assembly which did not occur. There has never been any doubt of Mr Connolly's position or any other government member's position on the impact of the Government's budget on the Government Service. It has been a clear and unequivocal statement to the community, to the trade union movement and to this Assembly, and Assembly members would do well to recognise that.
To say that there has been something misleading said is an absolute joke. It is nitpicking in the extreme. Mr Duby, hurt, it seems, by Mr Connolly's superior debating skills, has risen to the bait and has sought to attack Mr Connolly without grounds. There has been no misleading of this Assembly; there has been no misleading of the Estimates Committee. Indeed, if the Estimates Committee, at the time, thought that it had been misled it would have raised the issue, I am sure.
We know that Mr Jensen is a meticulous chairman and follows matters through where there is some doubt. He did not raise the issue. It would have been quite proper, if he had taken issue with the comments of Mr Connolly, for him to raise them. He did not. Neither did any other member of the Assembly who was or could have been involved in the Estimates Committee process. That is the shame of this matter. This is nitpicking in the extreme because somebody feels a little hurt by matters which have taken place in this Assembly.
What happened with the motion of censure that I moved on 29 May 1990 was that it was brushed aside by the Government on the numbers. The Government of the day, the Alliance Government, took the view that it was an inappropriate motion. It was a censure motion, for very good and valid reasons. There is no question about that. Whilst one cannot comment on that decision, the decision to put the censure motion was based on valid grounds.
This motion, in contrast, clearly has no basis. No matter how you read Hansard, it is clear that the Government's position on the budget expressed by Mr Connolly, or any other Minister for that matter, is that there will be savings made across the Government Service. Mr Connolly has never denied that; neither has any other Minister in the Assembly. I, for the life of me, cannot understand why Mr Duby has taken this matter on, unless he wants to express a vindictive note in this Assembly because of the nature of change of government, and so on.
Mr Deputy Speaker, for the Assembly to carry this censure motion would be a joke. It will be seen as a joke. Any sensible person, anybody with the smallest amount of commonsense who reads the Hansard, will determine and detect that Mr Connolly has been entirely honest throughout. He has made the position of the Government clear throughout.
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