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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 9 Hansard (4 September) . . Page.. 2892 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

So, it was actually before he realised that there was a motion likely to be moved that he indicated that he would. I think it is fair to put that on the record, Mr Speaker. I suppose that I enjoyed the bit of parliamentary banter that went on over this and ought not to have; but we really do have to clean up our act a bit. I think it would be very good for you, Mr Speaker, to report back on how we should proceed with this matter.

MR HIRD (11.28): I also spoke to the Attorney-General. In the heat of the debate at the time - as the house would recall, I was in the chair - I made a ruling on this. On reflection, I believe that the ruling was inappropriate. I made my views known to the Attorney-General, Mr Humphries. He agreed with me, to his credit.

MR CORBELL (11.29), in reply: I am pleased that other members believe that it is appropriate. The point the Opposition wants to make with this motion - why we believe that it is appropriate that you, Mr Speaker, rule on this issue - is that we are not dealing just with the use of that one term; we are dealing with the repute of this chamber in the ACT community. When we have unfortunate comments reported in the Canberra Times, as they were this morning on this issue, it does nothing but drag down the reputation of this Assembly in our community. We believe that that is inappropriate.

Mr Speaker, may I also say that we believe that it is inappropriate that the Manager of Government Business, the person who is leading the debate in this place on behalf of the Government and who has a very important role to play in this chamber, consistently and persistently uses offensive terms to denigrate members of this place - not just members of the Opposition, but members of the crossbenches also - and behaves in a way which is most unbecoming in someone who is meant to be the Manager of Government Business in this place. For that very reason, we believe that it is appropriate that we state very clearly our concern about the attitude of the Manager of Government Business on this issue and the behaviour that is bringing this place into disrepute. For those reasons, Mr Speaker, we believe that it is only appropriate that you rule on this issue.

MR HUMPHRIES (Attorney-General): Mr Speaker, I seek leave to make a contribution to this debate.

Leave granted.

MR HUMPHRIES: I thank members. Mr Speaker, let me say at the start that, if ever I have heard a case of the pot calling the kettle black, I heard it just a moment ago. If a list were ever compiled of people in this place who have abused standing orders by the use of unparliamentary terms, Mr Berry would be a long way ahead of any of us. In fact, he would probably be further ahead of all the rest of us put together. So, Mr Speaker, let us not get too "holier than thou" about all of this. Everybody uses terms like that at various stages in the course of the life of this Assembly, and members generally withdraw them when they are asked to do so. Let us not be too precious about it. Members deliberately use the phrases, knowing that they are going to be asked to withdraw them later on. Do not tell me you do not do that, because we all know that that is not the case.

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