Page 1068 - Week 04 - Thursday, 1 April 1993
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That is not what he told the house. Clearly, Mr Connolly misled the parliament. He told us that he wrote something other than what he did write. Fortunately, we have written proof of this, signed by Mr Connolly. In Mr Connolly's second letter, as I mentioned, he again affirmed that he did not go because of what was stated in the first letter. So once again we see that Mr Connolly told us in the house things that were not true and that he knew were not true. He also told us in the parliament that he had written:
... we would look forward to any such legal challenge ...
As you will recall, the letter I read out did not contain any such statement. I also suggest that for the Attorney-General to say that the ACT would look forward to expensive litigation is quite bizarre. However, as we have now established, the Attorney-General did not write any such statement.
I now wish to address the second issue raised by this motion - the apology due from Mr Connolly to Mr Williams and the numerous good people who either work for or benefit from the worthwhile activities of the Lone Fathers Association and Parents Without Partners. In his invitation to Mr Connolly, Mr Williams did present a firm stance - I certainly acknowledge that - but I do not believe that it was unbalanced and it was certainly compassionate. He demonstrated a genuine concern for effective solutions being found to a knotty problem. That was both reasonable and appropriate. Mr Barry Williams is an independent consultant to the Federal Government on the child support scheme, appointed by Brian Howe in 1987. This committee was chaired by Justice John Fogarty of the Family Court, and various notable people, including David Simmons as Minister for Family and Community Services, have expressed in writing their appreciation of Barry Williams's constructive contribution in this area. Yet Mr Connolly, with parliamentary privilege, tells all of Canberra that Mr Williams is an extremist and a ratbag.
Parents Without Partners, an international group which has been of considerable help to thousands and thousands of people in traumatic situations, gave Barry Williams a commendation in 1982 for outstanding service to lone parents and their children. Malcolm Fraser conveyed to Mr Williams his warmest congratulations on the honour conferred by the Queen. Mr Williams achieved the conversion of the single mother's benefit to the single parent's benefit. The result was that thousands of parents around Australia could then afford to properly feed and clothe their children. Mr Williams, through the groups of which he is a member, obtained many benefits for some of the most needy members of our community. These benefits included the lone father's benefit in 1977, free medical cards in 1978, greater tax concessions in 1978, free legal assistance from solicitors on the solicitor duty system in 1980, and discounts on electricity in 1981. Are not these remarkable achievements that deserve the highest commendation? Mr Williams also raised $60,000 by running a public dance every Friday night for nine years. The result is a building built by Parents Without Partners in Canberra for their use and named after Mr Williams.
In defamation cases, damages are awarded for the damage done to the plaintiff's reputation. After Mr Connolly's allegations in this parliament, which we now know to be false, we saw the kind of damage being done in this very chamber. I well remember some members agreeing with Mr Connolly's statement that they
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