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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 9 Hansard (2 September) . . Page.. 2756 ..

MR WHITECROSS: Thank you for that riveting explanation, Mr Speaker. Before Mr Humphries, in a pre-emptive strike, took a point of order, I was attempting to explain where I had been misrepresented. In answer to a question, I think by Mrs Littlewood, Mrs Carnell claimed that I had made certain predictions in my budget reply speech earlier this year about employment and unemployment. If Mrs Carnell had been more interested in the truth and less in scoring political points, she would accept that - - -

MR SPEAKER: Order! Make a personal explanation without the criticism.

MR WHITECROSS: I am making the personal explanation. Mr Speaker, she would recognise - - -

Mr Humphries: Mr Speaker, I rise on a point of order.

MR SPEAKER: There is a point of order. Mr Whitecross, if you are going to be provocative, you will get points of order all the time.

Mr Humphries: Mr Speaker, I would put it to you as Chair that it should be more than simply a case of taking points of order, and having them ruled upon and warned about. At some point there needs to be action taken. There has been a clear abuse of standing order 46, a clear use of it to attack another member. I would suggest that the action in this case, when he should be making a personal explanation, is to sit the member down and not allow him to continue to make that point.

MR WHITECROSS: Mr Speaker, I was misrepresented. If there was a provocation the provocation was that I was misrepresented. As I explained - - -

Mrs Carnell: You are debating the issue.

MR WHITECROSS: I am not debating the issue. I am explaining where I was misrepresented.

MR SPEAKER: I uphold the point of order. Just be careful, Mr Whitecross.

MR WHITECROSS: Thank you, Mr Speaker. As I said, the Chief Minister claimed that I had made certain predictions about employment and unemployment. If Mrs Carnell had correctly read the quote from my speech then, it would have been more accurately reported to the house that I was reporting predictions made by Access Economics, not making predictions of my own, Mr Speaker. Mrs Carnell was misrepresenting me and being disingenuous in misrepresenting what I said in my speech.

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