Page 2363 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 22 June 1994
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
MR BERRY (4.03): I am deeply concerned about the level of debate on this issue. From my point of view, this has all the odours of racial discrimination. The people who put those sorts of arguments ought to have attention directed to them. Nobody in today's society would accept that those people who are defined as being in a designated group should be dealt with in any other way than the way they are dealt with in this legislation. I am deeply disturbed, though not surprised, I should say, at the attitude of Mr Stevenson in relation to the application of the provisions of this Bill to those people as they are defined in that designated group.
That does not mean that it ought to pass unnoticed. At no time will I sit idly by and allow comments that can be seen to be racist to pass without some criticism. Mr Stevenson is very clearly seeking to wipe out that special mention in the Bill of Aboriginal persons and others, as described in paragraphs (a) to (e) inclusive. This goes back to the logic of the white supremacists that we have seen in operation in South Africa. I do not think we need that sort of attitude to creep into the debates in this Assembly, and every time I hear a glimmer of it I am going to rise and draw attention to the person who makes those sorts of moves. Madam Speaker, as has been indicated, the Government will be opposing what Mr Stevenson is up to, and I expect that all right thinking people in the ACT will applaud us for opposing what he is up to.
MR LAMONT (Minister for Urban Services, Minister for Housing and Community Services, Minister for Industrial Relations and Minister for Sport) (4.06): Madam Speaker, what we are talking about is a range of programs that have been identified by title in this part of the Bill. They have been developed after extensive consultation and negotiation, not only with appropriate organisations within the ACT but also with national organisations representing the types of service providers, the types of representative organisations, that cover each designation that has been included in the Bill. The programs we are talking about are extensive. They are well accepted. They are based upon respect for human dignity. They are an appropriate reflection of the values of the society within which we live. For Mr Stevenson to attempt to exclude from this Bill recognition of the process by which we have arrived at these outcomes and these outcomes is reprehensible. It is reprehensible because I am confident that Mr Stevenson has not consulted with anybody in regard to his decision to move this amendment.
Mr Stevenson: You would not want to put some money on it, would you?
MR LAMONT: Mr Stevenson - - -
Mr Stevenson: Yes or no? It is an easy one.
Mr Berry: I raise a point of order, Madam Speaker. I am sick of hearing Mr Stevenson scream across the room.
Mr Stevenson: You are closer to Mr Lamont when he does it. I have never heard a peep from you.
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Stevenson, it is not question time; just shush.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .