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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 7 Hansard (19 June) . . Page.. 1884 ..

Mr Kaine: On a point of order, Mr Speaker: I have just read the motion and the amendment to it, and they both talk about the numbers of operations in the hospital. Do you think you could keep the Opposition to matters that are relevant to the debate?

MR SPEAKER: I uphold the point of order. Relevance, Mr Whitecross.

MR WHITECROSS: Mr Speaker, I am sure that everybody knows the point. This Government is on the ropes. It is in trouble. Everything Government members touch is turning to dust on them - whether it is buses, libraries, the education dispute, planning or whatever - and so they construct out of thin air this accusation against Mr Berry. There is no substance to it. The Government has produced no evidence for it. It is not surprising that Mrs Carnell did not have the guts to get up and move this motion. She knows that it is tissue-thin, that it is a smart-arse thing that has been cooked up in her office and - - -

Mr De Domenico: On a point of order, Mr Speaker: I may not have heard correctly; but the acting member - I am sorry; the member - for Brindabella, I think, called Mrs Carnell or something Mrs Carnell did "smart-arse". I suggest that that is terribly unparliamentary. Perhaps when Mr Whitecross has been in this place for longer he will realise that a courteous person would withdraw that sort of remark.

MR SPEAKER: Would you do so.

MR WHITECROSS: I am happy to do that.

MR SPEAKER: Would you withdraw the term.

MR WHITECROSS: I withdraw the term. Mr Speaker, it was a cheap stunt, cooked up in Mrs Carnell's office, which does not have enough fibre to stand up on its own. So, rather than come in here and defend it, she got Mr Humphries to do the dirty work for her.

In fact, Mr Speaker, she did not even have the guts to come into the Assembly this morning and move the motion. She was hoping that we would all be happy to forget about it and go away. She had every media outlet in town briefed that there was going to be a censure motion today. She did not have the guts to move it first up. She did not even have the guts to move it at all. Having accused Mr Berry yesterday, having raised the allegation yesterday, she did not have the guts to move the motion. She did not even have the guts to speak before Mr Berry did. She tried to get Mr Berry on his feet to defend himself before she - the accuser - had made her allegations. That is how chicken she is. That is how pathetic this case is. That is how feeble the Government is.

Mr Speaker, this has been a monumental distraction from the real scandal of what this Government is doing to the Territory. The sooner the community can get back to focusing on the terrible job this Government is doing - whether it is in planning, budgets, health, or whatever else - the better it will be for this community.

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