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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 11 Hansard (26 September) . . Page.. 3437 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

I assert, as Mrs Carnell has already asserted, that that kind of interest in the community is a strengthening agent in this Assembly. It gives members of this Assembly a root into the rest of the community, from which I think we all profit. We should not be just a group of party apparatchiks who happen to win our places on the top of our party tickets to get here and have no other connection with or involvement in the community; nor, if we have such involvements, should we eschew those when we come into this Assembly. That is a process of strengthening the work this Assembly does, and I support that.

Mr Berry: Vanstone trained.

MR HUMPHRIES: Look at the personalities involved here. I would say to Mr Berry and to his colleagues over there, all of whom have deserted him, by the way - he is the only person sitting there; they are all embarrassed by the approach Mr Berry takes: If you want to run a grubby campaign against people in this place, then do so as well outside this place. When you say things that are defamatory and low and unbecoming of a member of this parliament, then have the decency to say them outside, where the consequences can be taken in other places. Do not rely on the coward's castle, which you are often prone to refer to, to make those sorts of low claims.

Mr Speaker, I think this motion is supportable. I move, as an amendment:

Paragraph (b), add ", including a Member's affiliation or membership of any organisation or association that could potentially constitute a conflict of interest".

Mr Berry: It is covered in (b), Gary. You do not need it.

MR HUMPHRIES: We do not need it? Mr Speaker, I think we do need it. The question of membership of organisations is a particularly critical issue. It is an issue that touches every member of this Assembly. We all belong to other organisations, and indeed we should; but the questions of what organisations, how close they are to government, and so on, are very important issues. Take the issue of membership of trade union organisations. Mr Berry talks about conflicts of interest, but he has never been prepared to talk about the situation where, as I understand it, it is a requirement of members of the Australian Labor Party that they belong to a trade union. If at the same time the member is the Minister for Industrial Relations in this place, is that a conflict of interest?

Mr Berry: Declared.

MR HUMPHRIES: Declared? Thank you. I do not think Mrs Carnell, in Mr Berry's wildest flights of fancy, could be accused of having hidden the fact that she is the owner of the Red Hill Pharmacy.

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