Page 3191 - Week 10 - Thursday, 16 September 1993
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Mr Berry: I answered it. You were not here.
MR STEVENSON: I asked you to leave a note of the answer on my desk, and I did not get it.
Mr Berry: It is in the record.
MR STEVENSON: Where is it? I was upstairs and I heard you talking about it. I came down immediately, and you were talking about another matter. I wrote you a note and said, "Would you be kind enough to give me a photocopy of your tabled answer, and please place it on my desk". What did you do with that? As you do with most other things when it comes to me, you ignored it, unfortunately, just as you ignored your responsibility to grant the right to have a kick boxing tournament - until the last minute, at which time they not only made a loss but did not have any profit to give the boy. We heard the Chief Minister a little while ago, when the money was mentioned, saying that the little boy did not see much of it. The reason for that lies totally and wholly and absolutely within the Chief Minister's and your laps. It is an appalling situation.
What did you do, after what Mr Cornwell correctly described as an absolute PR disaster for the Labor Party? You then took taxpayers' money and gave it to the boy, when people in the community could have decided to give it to the boy themselves by attending the tournament. They had already stated that they would do that.
Mr Berry: Wrong, wrong, wrong!
MR STEVENSON: If it is wrong, correct it. I certainly support the regulations. I think it is unfortunate that the Minister operates, as Mr Cornwell has correctly stated, as he wishes. Unfortunately, in this Assembly, this Health Minister's disregard for health regulations has occurred in the past. It seems to mean that, if what the Assembly wants done does not agree with what the Labor Party wants, you will do everything in your power to ignore it, to make it as late as possible, or simply not do what you have been instructed to do. That is not what you call representative government, and that is why many people do not think you are.
MR BERRY (Minister for Health, Minister for Industrial Relations and Minister for Sport) (12.21), in reply: Madam Speaker, I welcome the opportunity to speak on this matter. There are a few issues I need to go through in detail. When the Boxing Control Bill was debated in this Assembly in May, there was general support for the major principle of the Bill. The major principle of the Bill was that they wanted kick boxing included as a regulated sport. That was the intention of the Bill.
Mr De Domenico: It is not what you wanted, though.
MR BERRY: That is right. That principle was that boxing was an activity which should have some measure of control placed upon it. The only area of disagreement was whether or not kick boxing was a form of boxing which should be subject to control. The issue at the centre of the debate was whether it would be acceptable to the community or not acceptable. The Government's view was that it had no place in the community, and the majority opposite had a view that it ought to be regulated. The Government accepts, and has always accepted, that
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