Page 625 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 20 May 1992
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Mr Wood: You were right and we are right.
MR HUMPHRIES: No, Madam Speaker, the Minister has got it wrong. We were wrong and the Minister is wrong today as well. The fact of life is that this man is being harassed. The Minister knows that there is considerable unhappiness in the rural sector of the ACT with respect to the handling of some issues by the Environment and Conservation Division of his department.
Mr Kaine: There is considerable unrest in the entire electorate about this Government's performance. This is just one aspect of it.
MR HUMPHRIES: Indeed there is, but there is particular unrest among farmers and graziers in the ACT about some things that have been going on. They were faced by the committee that Mr Moore chaired last year, and still chairs, for that matter, when it did its inquiry into rural leaseholds - - -
Mr Wood: You should read that report and back up what you are saying.
MR HUMPHRIES: I helped write the report, Mr Wood. I know what is in the report. I was one of its authors, remember. The fact of life is that there is unhappiness about the handling of some of these issues. The Minister should be looking very carefully at what is going on within his department. I suggest that he is being a little complacent in accepting advice coming from his department about these matters. Look again. Look again and consider whether we as a community are being fair to this man. If you do so, I am confident that you will come to a different conclusion.
MR LAMONT: Madam Speaker, I claim to have been misquoted, pursuant to standing order 47.
Mr Kaine: Should you not wait until the debate is concluded before you do this?
Mr Humphries: Yes, it is traditional to do that.
Mr Moore: No; this is when you have been misquoted.
MADAM SPEAKER: He can do it now. Go on, Mr Lamont.
MR LAMONT: Thank you, Madam Speaker. It has been suggested by Mr Humphries that I indicated that Mr Russell was living in the past and that he still had the same attitudes now that he held 60 years ago. That was not what I said in my contribution to this debate. I said that policies for land care which were appropriate 60 years ago are no longer appropriate today. I can only judge that Mr Humphries's comments in this regard are as much a beat-up as everything else he has said this morning.
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