Page 4464 - Week 14 - Thursday, 1 December 1994
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Madam Speaker, this Minister told this house that the AIDS Action Council does not support this legislation. I have presented clearly the evidence that the AIDS Action Council does indeed support this legislation that passed through this house. I cannot, for the life of me, understand why the Minister would do that. I cannot understand why he would publicly misrepresent the legislation in the first place, and then come into this house and give a general misrepresentation, unless it was for some political mileage that he believed he would get. But on this specific issue - and this is the critical one, Madam Speaker - deliberately misleading the house on this issue is totally unacceptable.
This house has already set a precedent, Madam Speaker. It has set a precedent that a Minister cannot mislead this house. Madam Speaker, as long as I continue to believe that Mr Connolly has misled this house, I have no choice but to move or to support a motion of no confidence. If Mr Connolly, or anybody else, can present evidence to show me that I am wrong, that he has not misled the house, it will be with pleasure that I will withdraw this motion. Even if I believed that the words could be misconstrued or misunderstood, or understood in a different way, perhaps I would be prepared to modify this to a censure motion.
Mr Lamont: To apologise?
MR MOORE: Mr Lamont interjects. If I have wronged Mr Connolly I will apologise, of course. At this stage, from what I heard Mr Connolly say at question time and what I have in front of me, and what I know, I believe that this Minister has misled this house. Madam Speaker, I think it is important for us to maintain the highest possible standards in this house, and I will pursue this. Madam Speaker, I am aware that in question time there was a somewhat heated debate. I am aware that not only was the Minister somewhat heated but I was also. That is why I say that if I have misheard I will be prepared to apologise. Madam Speaker, I think it is also important to note that, today being Thursday, I have the choice of either waiting to see the Hansard to double-check - - -
Mr Berry: You are not even sure that he misled the house now.
MR MOORE: I feel sure about what I heard, Madam Speaker. I believe that I will not need to apologise. I believe that this is the appropriate course of action. I also think it is important to understand that I could easily have let this issue cook for three or four days. Politically, Madam Speaker and Mr Connolly, it would have been very useful for me to change the whole nature of this debate by letting this cook for three or four days, in an open way. I chose specifically not to do that, even though I did not have the Hansard with me, specifically so that the issue could be dealt with now, openly, without it being the subject of conjecture. Madam Speaker, it is with regret that I have moved this motion, because I believe that in many ways Mr Connolly has been one of the most competent Ministers to have operated in this Assembly and in the former Assembly.
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