Page 5439 - Week 17 - Tuesday, 3 December 1991
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The fact is that governments rely upon advice, and that advice is translated through Ministers. The fact is that Mr Duby tendered advice in government. At this stage I need to exculpate all other members of the Alliance, because Mr Stefaniak, Mrs Nolan, Mr Jensen, Dr Kinloch, Ms Maher and the Speaker, Mr Prowse, were not privy to that annual budget Cabinet process, one element of which is reviewing, annually, all charges to see what should be increased or decreased. They were not privy to it; so I want to stress that Mr Moore's comments, in terms of equivocation, can apply only to four of us. Mr Duby stuck to his ground.
I am quite happy to stand up here and say, having heard the other side of the argument, having listened to the arguments of the motorcycle people, that the decision I took was wrong. It was wrong. I will say it here. I will say it any time. I am quite willing to say that I did not consider a number of issues in the arguments presented, and, I want to add, nor did I consider the fact that the third-party insurance premium set in this Territory had been wrong for so many years. It is a joke.
For at least 10 years, we found out recently, moneys collected somewhere - I am not going to revisit the NRMA one - were excessive. I was glad to have revealed it during the estimates process. Who is to say that the $161 third-party insurance premium on bikes at the moment is a fair charge?
The fact is that it might be just as well that we take a step back on this and review the charge, and I am not chasing votes on that. I did not like the inference from Mr Moore. He is referring to only three of us and this is not a vote issue to me. I rode a motorbike for five years in France and I ruined most of my suits. At least here we do not get black ice. As Mr Duby and I know, in the last few months of the government we had a number of tragedies on bikes.
Mr Duby: I haven't got a kneecap.
MR COLLAERY: Mr Duby does not have a kneecap. He needs to be kneecapped occasionally, but you will be able to achieve only a partial job on him because it has already been done. So, some of us bear the scars of bike riding. There is no agenda here for or against trying to be objective. The fact is that the statistics show - - -
Mr Wood: Do you people not want the planning legislation up?
MR COLLAERY: Mr Speaker, this is an excellent time for Mr Wood to get that haircut that he has not managed to have. He is saying that he has not had time to get out of the house. We will only be another few minutes. This is important to the motorcycle riders and it is important that
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