Page 2731 - Week 09 - Thursday, 26 August 1993
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ADMINISTRATION AND PROCEDURES - STANDING COMMITTEE
Report on Citizen's Right of Reply
MADAM SPEAKER: Members, I present a report of the Standing Committee on Administration and Procedures entitled "Citizen's Right of Reply", together with a copy of the extracts of the minutes of proceedings.
MR HUMPHRIES (10.52): I move:
That the report be adopted.
Madam Speaker, there is a certain irony in our dealing with this matter today, after the events of the Assembly yesterday. It is even more ironic that I have been asked, on behalf of the committee, to move this motion.
Mr Lamont: No; you volunteered.
MR HUMPHRIES: I did indeed volunteer, yes. The issue of citizens exercising some capacity to respond to members who make allegations or comments in the chamber concerning them is an issue that has been dealt with by other parliaments, and it is relevant in this parliament also, not merely because of what might have happened in the last few hours but also because of what has happened over the life of this parliament.
Mr Berry: You have that earnest cloak on again.
MR HUMPHRIES: You hate it, do you not, Mr Berry? You cannot do it; that is why you hate it. The fact of life is that we have had a number of occasions where problems of this kind have arisen. Mr Gerald Gold was extremely aggrieved by comments made by a member of this chamber, and he had occasion to write a great many letters to members of this Assembly concerning the treatment he felt he had had at the hands of a particular member. Similarly, Mr Paul Whalan, a former member of this chamber, had cause to express his desire for a response to certain claims made about him. These matters are the catalyst to the decision that was made by the Administration and Procedures Committee to examine the question of what should be done in these circumstances.
It is perhaps not true to say that people have no opportunity to respond to claims made in parliament. They do have opportunities of various sorts. But it is appropriate that they also have the opportunity to respond in a way that puts the concerns they have raised in the same context as that in which the original allegations or comments were made. I believe that, with the adoption of the procedure recommended in this paper, the Assembly will have a better opportunity to respond fairly to - - -
Mr Berry: But it will not stop the vindictive nature of your attack yesterday.
MR HUMPHRIES: In response to the interjection, it will not stop members exercising their right to make comments in this chamber about legitimate matters of public concern, no. That is the short answer to that. It will not stop that; nor should it.
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