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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 12 Hansard (13 November) . . Page.. 4113 ..

MR BERRY (Leader of the Opposition) (3.32): Mr Speaker, I move:

That the standing orders be suspended for as long as it takes the Chief Minister to prove that Mr Berry had ever met with the Premier of New South Wales.

During question time, Mrs Carnell made some claims about meetings that I was supposed to have had with the Premier of New South Wales. This suspension of standing orders will give Mrs Carnell the opportunity to prove that I - - -

Mrs Carnell: Just say that you did not, if you did not.

MR BERRY: No; you are the one that made the statement. You will have to prove it. You are the one that gave this Assembly information. I want you to prove it. I want you to demonstrate that you have the evidence, to lay the evidence you have on the table. This is clearly your opportunity to demonstrate that what you said to this Assembly is not a lie. This is your opportunity to prove that you have not lied to this Assembly. Why do you not get up and do so? The Government should support this motion so that Mrs Carnell can demonstrate that she has not lied to this Assembly.

MR HUMPHRIES (Attorney-General) (3.34): I have to say that for a man who has been slinging mud furiously throughout the entire week to rise now, his back rigid with indignation at the suggestion that he might have been involved in some tawdry little deal with the Carr Government, is ironic, to put it very mildly, and highly hypocritical, to put it more accurately. Mr Speaker, that man over there has a very easy way of defusing this issue, a very easy way indeed, the easiest way in the world. He can rise in his place and say with all the grace he can muster - that is not very much, I might say - that he has never had any discussions with Premier Carr or any other member of the New South Wales Government with relation to privatisation of power or electricity utilities in the ACT or New South Wales. That is a very easy thing to do. It is so easy, Mr Speaker, that it would barely register in Hansard.

He is a man who all week has been throwing around unsubstantiated allegations which he has not bothered to repeat outside the house, where he is not under the protection of what he called, I think, the coward's castle. He has made unsubstantiated allegations throughout the week about some sort of deal done on Mr De Domenico's retirement from this place. For him to rise now and say, "I am offended by your suggestions" is absolute hypocrisy. If Mr Berry is prepared to rise again, we will give him leave to make that admission if he wishes to, or make that denial if he wishes to. But I do not propose to waste the time of this Assembly by supporting this stunt by the Labor Party.

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