Page 227 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 12 May 1992
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It is unreasonable and unfair for you to expect me to do so. If I were lying, I would expect you to ask me to withdraw it. I am not lying; I am making a statement of fact.
Mr Lamont: Madam Speaker, you have been asked, on a point of order, to request the Leader of the Opposition to withdraw the imputation. He has done so in a qualified manner, which should not be acceptable to this chamber. I would therefore ask, once again, that without qualification Mr Kaine withdraw it and that debate on this matter conclude as soon as that is done.
MADAM SPEAKER: I will speak to the Clerk.
Mr Kaine, I have discussed the matter with the Clerk; I have looked at the rules; I have listened to the debate. I do believe that you should withdraw that statement. If you wish to make that statement you can charge the Chief Minister with making an untruth in a substantive motion, but under the current rules my ruling is that you are suggesting that the Chief Minister has lied, and that is unparliamentary, and you should withdraw it.
MR KAINE: Madam Speaker, I find it quite offensive if, under the standing orders of this Assembly, the Chief Minister can make a statement that is untrue and I am not permitted to refute it. That needs to be on the record. But, if that is your ruling, I withdraw. I think the standing orders ought to be amended because they allow the Chief Minister to say anything she likes but members on this side are not even permitted to refute it. I think that is disgraceful.
MADAM SPEAKER: Thank you, Mr Kaine. I accept your withdrawal.
MRS CARNELL: Madam Speaker, can I also make a personal explanation under - - -
MADAM SPEAKER: With caution, Mrs Carnell.
Mr Kaine: Be careful what you say.
MRS CARNELL: I promised, did I not? It is under standing order 46. In Mr Berry's answer to Mrs Grassby's question on methadone, he suggested that my attitude to pharmacists being part of the methadone program was, at best, something to do with privatisation and, at worst, something to do with my private and personal interests in the pharmacy profession.
Mr Berry: Come on; you are debating the issue.
MRS CARNELL: I am not. I would like to go on. I am sure that Mr Berry is aware that pharmacists' part in the methadone program was a recommendation of the drug and alcohol working party of last year. Mr Berry announced a pilot on 21 August last year, which has not gone ahead. Methadone is available through pharmacies in all mainland States, and it is an essential part of the methadone program to reassimilate methadone addicts into the community.
Mr Connolly: On a point of order, Madam Speaker: This happened last time Mrs Carnell stood to make a personal explanation. It must be drawn to her attention yet again that one cannot debate the matter, which she has repeatedly done.
MADAM SPEAKER: Thank you, Mr Connolly.
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