Page 3827 - Week 14 - Thursday, 10 December 1992
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There is another point about this lady who rang up. Her husband is partially blind and works in Belconnen. He did not know whether he could get home. They could not tell him whether the buses were going to run at the time he wanted to come home. She said various things about how she intends voting in the future. I will give this lady's name to Mr Connolly later. She specifically asked me not to mention her name in the house, but I will give it to the Minister later and perhaps he will have the courtesy to ring her up and apologise to her for the remarks made to her by someone we pay to be where he or she is. Ironically, the same lady was told to get stuffed, by this person - - -
Ms Follett: She had a bad day.
MR DE DOMENICO: She had a rotten day.
Ms Follett: Did she ring you up as well?
MR DE DOMENICO: She tried to ring the Government, Ms Follett. No-one would listen to her and when she rang the public servant she was told to get stuffed. So, no wonder she rang the Opposition.
To talk about this being just a sandwich in the park situation is utter nonsense; it was a political rally condoned by the people opposite. All of them condoned it; but, ironically, when it came down to the nitty-gritty, one of the people who were not there was the Chief Minister. She jibbed it, as she always does. She sent the henchmen and henchwomen in to do her dirty work and she jibbed it; she was not there. She can never put her money where her mouth is. That is what it is all about. This Government is the only government in this country that condoned that strike. It condoned that strike, in company with Mr Halfpenny and some other left-wing union leaders, and we all know why - because they rely on those same left-wing members of the trade union movement to remain where they are. Here is the lady's name and telephone number, and perhaps you can ring her up and apologise, Mr Connolly.
MR LAMONT (4.04): Now we can inject some sanity into the debate. There has certainly been none for the last 10 minutes. A number of issues are quite central to this MPI. I suppose the major one of those is what it is like to live in a society as we do in Australia. Mr Deputy Speaker, your neighbours, fine and noble people as they must be, living next door to you, would - - -
Ms Follett: Long-suffering.
MR LAMONT: I never said that. They would expect you, Mr Deputy Speaker, if something untoward was happening in their domicile, to take action at least to attempt to draw it to the appropriate authority's attention or to prevent its continuation. That is a similar situation in terms of my own position on places like Timor. We, as a country, as a neighbour, have an obligation to draw those matters to the attention of all Australians, and indeed of the international community. The simple fact is that this country took a leading position in relation to the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa.
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