Page 1488 - Week 05 - Thursday, 12 May 1994
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
MR LAMONT: It is somewhat unparliamentary, I would suspect, for you to repose like that, Mr Humphries.
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: Mr Lamont, if you move back and lean against the desk, Hansard cannot pick up your comments.
MR LAMONT: Do you mean that I am not speaking loudly enough?
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: They are signalling that they are having difficulty. Order, please!
MR LAMONT: We will seek to have the desk moved a bit closer for the next session. It is somewhat of a travesty that what would otherwise be treated as a quite serious issue is dragged into the gutter by Mr De Domenico this afternoon. It is pretty obvious that, after he woke up this morning and came into his office and sat at Mr Stefaniak's old table, he pulled out Mr Stefaniak's old MPIs. This one must have been at the top of them. Indeed, it is something akin to those that Mr Stefaniak used to run during the life of the previous Assembly.
In answer to a question earlier this week from Mr Kaine, to which I provided an expanded answer today, I think I outlined the position in relation to compulsory unionism and those types of questions, and the relationship between the Industrial Relations Act of 1988 and the Discrimination Act of 1991. I think I quite clearly pointed out the state of the law. I do not intend, in the brief time available to me this afternoon, to try to answer the dorothy dixers that Mr De Domenico has seen fit to try to beat the press up on over the last couple of days; but I will do this. I am prepared to take 15 minutes of the Assembly's time to give Mr De Domenico an industrial relations lesson, because it appears as though that is what he is sorely in need of. I am also prepared this afternoon to offer an opportunity for officers of my department to brief Mr De Domenico about the concepts of industrial relations and the relationships between employers and employees, not only here in the ACT but throughout Australia. I am also prepared to go one step further and get that briefing in monosyllabic words that he can understand, and to use graphs if that is necessary.
Mr De Domenico has been around this city for long enough to know when his leg is being pulled on a number of questions. The first of those is in relation to a garbage contract. As I have repeatedly said in this house, I am not about to interfere in an assessment process which has stood the test of time. I have said this to Mr De Domenico on repeated occasions. What has he tried to do again this afternoon? Mr De Domenico deliberately set out to try to influence, I suggest, the outcome of a quite proper process being conducted to consider this tender, in favour, obviously, of one particular applicant. I can draw no other conclusion. I wonder what the other seven applicants, who have done all the work involved in submitting their tenders, think of Mr De Domenico's actions in this regard. They probably feel as outraged as I do, Mr Deputy Speaker, at the type of action which he has entered into.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .