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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 7 Hansard (19 June) . . Page.. 1858 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

I moved for the suspension of standing orders. I am the one who is threatened with censure here, and I am threatened by Mrs Carnell. I am the one who moved to suspend standing orders to have Mrs Carnell put up or shut up. I trust that the crossbenchers will have due regard to my position in this, because I am the one who is under threat. I trust that the crossbenchers would allow me to call on my detractor, Mrs Carnell, to give her a chance to put up or shut up. I trust that the crossbenchers will not join with the Government in order to assist them to divert attention from their weak leader on this issue. I speak on this issue merely to try to convince those people on the crossbenches to permit me - the person under attack - to call on my attacker, Mrs Carnell, to put up; to move the motion that she so threatens. If she is not going to move the motion now, she need not do it now. She can pick a time of her choosing. But now is the time for her to put up or shut up in the first place.

MR HUMPHRIES (Attorney-General) (10.59), in reply: There is no question that the Government intends to move the motion and for both Mrs Carnell and me to speak to this motion. There is nothing to be gained by those opposite insisting that Mrs Carnell move the motion, since it was always the Government's intention - members of the crossbenches will have seen yesterday a motion which I had drafted and which had my name on the bottom of it - that I would move this motion of censure. What the Opposition is saying is that it is their entitlement to dictate who it is on this side of the chamber that moves a censure motion. The question is: Is it the Minister for Health - - -

Mr Berry: I am the one who is being censured. She chose herself.

MR HUMPHRIES: No. I am sorry; you do not get the right to choose your firing squad. You cannot say who is going to be on the firing squad. You have the right to have the case made out. If we on this side of the chamber choose to make the case out through me rather than Mrs Carnell, it really does not matter.

Ms McRae: We will ask you all the questions on health tomorrow, then. It is outrageous.

MR HUMPHRIES: I welcome that interjection by Mrs McRae. I welcome it because Mrs McRae presumably supports the view that the - - -

Ms McRae: "Ms", thank you. Please call me by my right title.

MR HUMPHRIES: I beg your pardon, Ms McRae. Ms McRae says that it ought to be the Health Minister who moves this motion. I direct members to notice No. 2 on today's notice paper, which refers to expressing regret at Mr Stefaniak's inability to resolve the current dispute with the teachers federation. Who has given notice of this motion? Not the Education spokesman. Mr Berry has.

Ms McRae: Who is the spokesperson for industrial relations. You do not know what you are talking about.

MR SPEAKER: Order!

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