Page 1457 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 11 August 1992
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Mr Kaine: I asked you a question. Maybe you would like to answer it instead of demanding that I withdraw it.
Mr Humphries: Speaking to the point of order, Madam Speaker, - - -
MADAM SPEAKER: Just a minute, please. As I understand it, Mr Berry is taking a point of order against Mr De Domenico. As I understand it, Mr De Domenico, you perhaps made an imputation of improper motives against another member in this Assembly.
Mr Humphries: On that point of order, Madam Speaker: I would like to address you on that.
MADAM SPEAKER: I have not finished. If that is indeed the case, there is a standing order which asks that members do not put improper motives on other people's statements or behaviour. Mr De Domenico, I will leave it to you. Was it your intention to place an improper motive on anything Mr Lamont - - -
MR DE DOMENICO: No, Madam Speaker, it was not.
MADAM SPEAKER: So you are withdrawing any imputation?
MR DE DOMENICO: There was no imputation, as far as I am concerned, Madam Speaker.
MADAM SPEAKER: Thank you. Mr De Domenico has withdrawn it.
MR DE DOMENICO: No. I raise a point of order, Madam Speaker. No, I have not - - -
MADAM SPEAKER: I understood you, Mr De Domenico, to withdraw any likelihood of an imputation.
MR DE DOMENICO: No; I said that there was no imputation. I did not withdraw what I said. I said that there was no imputation made.
MADAM SPEAKER: Fine; that is the same. Thank you very much; that is fine.
MS SZUTY (8.36): Madam Speaker, as my colleague Mr Moore has indicated that he will support Mr Lamont's amendments in banning most exotic animals from circuses, my view becomes largely academic. However, I wish to place it on the record. The amendments have raised a number of complex issues regarding the care of exotic animals and the appropriateness of their performing in circuses. In responding to the issue, I have sought and received views from various organisations, including the Conservation Council, the Australian and New Zealand Federation of Animal Societies, the RSPCA, Animal Liberation and the Circus Federation of Australia, and I visited the three circuses when they were here in Canberra last week. I have also received many telephone calls and hundreds of letters. What I have encountered is a polarisation of views on the issue, with little or no agreement being reached. I have by no means accepted at face value the arguments of one lobby group or the other; consequently, it has taken me six weeks to fully consider my position.
I have approached the issue similarly to my colleague Mr Moore, but I have arrived at different conclusions. I have therefore looked at the issue from the perspective of primates, elephants and large cats - the only exotic animals currently touring regularly in circuses in Australia. Primates are social animals
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