Page 3174 - Week 10 - Thursday, 16 September 1993
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Mr Berry: It is unparliamentary. It is outrageous.
MR HUMPHRIES: It is a rhetorical question.
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Humphries, do you want to address the point of order?
MR HUMPHRIES: Yes, I do. The question, "When will you stop beating your wife?" is a classic example of a rhetorical question which one cannot win by answering. That was what Mr Kaine was clearly trying to do; to indicate what a bind this Government is putting us in by taking points of order of that kind. There was no reflection on Mr Berry's relationship with his wife or domestic violence.
Mr Lamont: How tacky!
Mr Kaine: Yes, it is pretty tacky. You want to keep your Minister in shape.
Mr Berry: I think it is outrageous.
MADAM SPEAKER: Members, if we had a bit of order perhaps I could deal with points of order. What was out of order was that you were interjecting whilst I was speaking, Mr Kaine. I will not ask you to withdraw that comment; but, from here on in, if I am speaking, I would ask that members be quiet. Then we would not get into this sort of a problem. Mr Humphries, please proceed.
Mr Kaine: Were you addressing me, Madam Speaker?
MADAM SPEAKER: I was addressing everyone, Mr Kaine.
Mr Kaine: You were looking at me. I thought you were addressing me personally.
MADAM SPEAKER: Could we have some order? Mr Humphries has the floor.
MR HUMPHRIES: Madam Speaker, I, for one, am sick of the torrent of lies which fly from the mouths of those who would seek to defend inappropriate appointments, from those who would seek to pretend that this Government in some way produces just and appropriate appointments.
Mr Berry: That is an imputation again.
MR HUMPHRIES: You are being measured on your own standards, Mr Berry.
Mr Berry: I take a point of order, Madam Speaker. Clearly, members on this side of the house defended the Government's appointment, and the imputation was that we were lying.
Mr Cornwell: It was a generalisation.
MR HUMPHRIES: It was a generalisation, Madam Speaker. There was no reference to - - -
Mr Kaine: It was a general statement about the Government.
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