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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 7 Hansard (23 September) . . Page.. 2124 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

is ground for censure. That standard is a standard higher than one that applies in any other parliament in this country, or any other parliament in the world, to the best of my knowledge. That is a stupid standard. No Minister can meet that standard. Everybody makes mistakes. If Mr Berry or Mr Quinlan believe that the statement was made deliberately with the intention to deceive the house, let them produce their evidence of that. They have not done so as yet.

Mr Berry: I've got it. We have presented it. You are just blind.

Mr Quinlan: It is in the Hansard.

MR HUMPHRIES: No, no. You produced evidence that what he said yesterday was different from what you claim the state of affairs was, but the point is that he has corrected that since yesterday.

Mr Berry: No, he has not.

MR HUMPHRIES: He has. He has clearly corrected it, and he has put on the table his advice from his department. Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, I am not going to speak any longer. I am simply going to sit down. If members want to impose that standard on members of the Government or any government for misleading, then they set a standard which will fell many Ministers in the coming years. Indeed, it will fell many members if that is the standard they expect to set. It is unsustainable. What Mr Smyth has done has been right and proper.

Mr Berry: "I misled the house and I apologise". That is what he has to say.

MR HUMPHRIES: He did say he apologised. He apologised to this house.

Mr Berry: He refuses to accept that he misled it.

MR HUMPHRIES: He said he apologised for having said something which may have been inaccurate or misleading.

Mr Berry: Well, let him speak now. We will listen to him.

MR HUMPHRIES: He did. He has already said it, and he has tabled the document. What more can you reasonably want? What more can you reasonably want?

MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Mr Berry, come to order. Leader of the house, address your remarks through the Chair.

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, I plead with members not to further debase the currency of censure motions. If they are to carry any weight at all they should not be frittered away on stupid motions of this kind in this way.

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