Page 2703 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 25 August 1993
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MR HUMPHRIES: Members opposite consistently criticise those members of the Opposition, plural - - -
Mr Lamont: Never. Not in relation to your trip.
MR HUMPHRIES: You check the record - plural.
Mr Connolly: No, no-one is criticising those parliamentary study trips.
Mr Lamont: Nobody.
MR HUMPHRIES: I will check the record; but I think, Madam Speaker, that we need to establish certain guidelines. Are we going to engage in shooting from the hip every time a member engages in travel, either on behalf of the Assembly or under their own steam, and are we going to set guidelines for that to happen, or are we going to engage in a process whereby members - - -
Mr Lamont: This is outrageous.
Ms Ellis: It is ridiculous; it is silly.
MR HUMPHRIES: Madam Speaker, I am not asking for a lot when I ask to say something in the adjournment debate. Could I have a bit of quiet? Are we going to expect that members will constantly engage in bickering over this subject, or are we going to have some rules which allow that to occur on a reasonable basis? My party has criticised the expense of the Chief Minister's trip to Japan. It is quite wrong to suggest that my party has criticised the purpose, the intent of that trip.
Ms Follett: Do you want me to go backpacking? Do you want me to take a backpack?
MR HUMPHRIES: Madam Speaker, there is a world of difference between backpacking and a $180,000 trip. If the Chief Minister cannot see anything in between those two extremes, I pity her bank account, because there is a big distinction.
Ms Follett: Mine is $20,000.
Mr Connolly: It is all the other people, the number in the party.
MR HUMPHRIES: It depends on the number of people being taken, and that is the question for which we have no answers at this stage. It is an appropriate question to ask. Before members opposite start to carp and criticise, before they start to jump up and down and say, "How dare you question this matter", bear in mind that they have criticised every private trip undertaken by a member of this Assembly on this side of the chamber, every private trip paid for by members themselves or by persons other than the taxpayers of the ACT. That has been so in every case I can think of, with the possible exception of one.
Mr Connolly: Rubbish! Two.
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