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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 10 Hansard (3 September) . . Page.. 2919 ..

Mr De Domenico: Get the facts right.

Mr Berry: Mr Speaker, on a point of order: Mr Whitecross has been battling an onslaught of interjections. You have called them to order on several occasions. They take absolutely no notice of you. I ask you to call them to order once again.

MR SPEAKER: Thank you, Mr Berry. I call Mr Whitecross.

Mr Berry: Mr Speaker, I would ask for your ruling on that point of order.

MR SPEAKER: The Opposition drew attention to this fact, and I would ask Government members to allow Mr Whitecross to finish his speech and to be heard in silence.

MR WHITECROSS: Thank you, Mr Speaker. The fact is that the ban has served its purpose and we must now move on. If it is appropriate to express our outrage against wrong actions, it is equally proper for us to acknowledge when right actions are taken. The fact is that the French have now ceased nuclear testing in the Pacific. The fact is that the French have now signed the South Pacific Treaty. It is appropriate, therefore, that we acknowledge that by lifting the ban today.

Mr Speaker, I should say that, even if nuclear testing is finished, this issue is an issue which, as Ms Tucker said, will continue to weigh on the minds of a lot of people who are concerned about the South Pacific and the citizens of the South Pacific. To a great extent, the decision to test nuclear weapons in the South Pacific is a reflection of values which most Australians would find totally abhorrent - of colonialism and, ultimately, of racism - where decision-makers in France feel that they can ignore the human rights, the human dignity and the right to self-determination of people who are really of a different nation in a different part of the world. I think that is an ongoing source of concern to a lot of people, and rightly so, and it is a human rights issue which we should continue to feel strongly about.

Mr Speaker, I think that the time has come to acknowledge a positive action, and that is what we are doing today. I think that, as an Assembly, we should be acknowledging the benefits of that action and resolving to go forward in this way; not, as the Liberals continue to do, to mock the strength of feeling of the Assembly and of the Australian people, in particular the people of Canberra, on this issue. We will be supporting the motion; we will be supporting the amendment, with the amendment that has now been circulated by Ms Horodny. I commend the motion to the house.

MS HORODNY (10.58): I move:

Paragraph (2), omit "Prime Minister", substitute "President".

That was a small oversight that I would like to correct.

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