Page 1322 - Week 05 - Thursday, 25 June 1992
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MR BERRY: We did not up the ante. What it boils down to is that the Liberals were going to move a motion that condemns, but crossed it out and put in "censures" because they could not get leave to move it in any other way. We would grant leave for a censure motion and of course we would debate the issues, and at the end of the day we would make our decision on the basis of those issues. This motion before the Assembly was never intended to be a censure motion and it therefore could not expect to gain the same sort of passage in this place.
This is an issue about Mr De Domenico wanting to take a swipe at Mr Lamont. I suggest to him that the best place to take a swipe at him is out in the back room. Have a little bit of a shot at Mr Lamont. Mr Lamont, I am sure, can defend himself. This is a silly matter to bring before the Assembly. You want to condemn him; but, because you cannot get priority in this place, you change it to censure. What a silly motion. It is thin. There is no evidence, and it is just trivial. Why on earth should this Assembly take time to sit down and consider trivial matters like this when there are a couple of important matters waiting to be considered, like issues that affect workers; but, of course, Mr De Domenico would not be that concerned about issues where workers might benefit.
MR DE DOMENICO (4:33), in reply: Madam Speaker, I have said what I had to say at length, but let me say a couple of things. If, as Mr Connolly said, this is the substantive government response, thank God they are not treating it lightly. Madam Speaker, the facts, as far as I am concerned, are quite clear. Mr Lamont, all of a sudden today, after a motion of censure, gets back his memory. He could not remember on the night itself which document we were referring to. All of a sudden, in this Assembly this afternoon, under a motion of censure, and only after Mr Berry and the Government would not let us clear it up in another way, the memory comes back. He has had the fish food; all of a sudden, back comes the memory. It is a three-page document, he now concedes, and here it is.
Mr Berry: You said that it was a three-page document.
MR DE DOMENICO: Yes, and he agreed, because he tabled it today. All of a sudden he is aware, this afternoon, which document he was reading from; but he did not remember on the night that he was actually reading from it, for heaven's sake. Do you expect us to believe that, Mr Berry? Do you expect any sane, logical person to believe that? I do not believe that even you believe what you had to say. There you go.
Let me tell you where this document came from, by the way. Let us now get into the interesting part. This document, and here is one of the originals, Mr Berry, has on it "For party room consideration - Prepared by Mr Westende". That does not appear on Mr Lamont's document. It is Mr Westende's document, not Mr Lamont's.
Mr Berry: Somebody is leaking in the Liberals.
MR DE DOMENICO: True; somebody is leaking, Mr Berry. That is not the point of contention, though. Mr Lamont knew, because he has tabled it today. It has "Libs" on the top of it. Mr Lamont's document that he quoted from, verbatim what appears in this document, is what appeared in the Hansard. So the only way Mr Lamont could have put those words into Hansard, Mr Berry, was if he had this document. True?
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