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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 1 Hansard (20 February) . . Page.. 279 ..

MS REILLY: Excuse me, Mr Speaker; I am just trying to make sure that I do not offend in any way in the future when I am recollecting actions that happened to me.

MR SPEAKER: I have no doubt you will be let known.

Mr Osborne: Marion, if you were on the board you would get kicked off.

MS REILLY: I realise that; and I am very glad that this is not an issue that I have to worry about at the moment. Just give me a few minutes to ensure that words that I may have used innocently are not misinterpreted.

Mr Humphries: There is nothing at all innocent about saying there is corruption in the Government, Marion.

MS REILLY: There were concerns amongst a number of community organisations - - -

Mr Berry: She never said that. You might have a guilty conscience, but she never said that.

MS REILLY: Can I continue?

MR SPEAKER: Keep going.

MS REILLY: There were concerns about the continuation of their funding in the future, about what they would be able to do and whom they could employ. This has been raised with me and has been discussed amongst the community sector for the last two years. It has continued to be raised with me since I was elected to the Assembly. There is one instance which I want to mention, and I hope that I will be allowed to mention it. During community consultation with a number of people - they are unnamed, but there were several people there - an employee of one community organisation asked a critical question. In other words, he suggested that something the Government might be doing might not be the correct action. Other organisations which were present were shocked and concerned for the questioner and his organisation's funding. This is how this was put to me. They were concerned about this organisation's funding. Are they not allowed to have those opinions?

Mr Humphries: If you want to mention those opinions here, you have to justify them. This is the whole point. Mr Speaker, on a point of order: I think Ms Reilly is repeating these allegations which she was asked to withdraw before.

MS REILLY: No, I am not.

Mr Humphries: We were told earlier today that a cheap attack on a person outside this place is unfair. Everybody who has been mentioned so far has been named in this place. Therefore, it behoves this Assembly, and the work of the Assembly, that Ms Reilly name the people that she is talking about and not leave public servants or politicians, whoever it might be, unnamed in this process.

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