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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 8 Hansard (28 October) . . Page.. 2377 ..

MR STANHOPE (continuing):

I come back to the lecture from Mr Moore about what censure motions are all about; the lecture to us about misleading to the extent that we want so long as at the end of the day we jump up and apologise, and then all will be forgiven. That is an absolutely ridiculous and outrageous suggestion. Mr Moore sat there and listened to the Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister answer 25 questions on Hall/Kinlyside, all of which were false, and not once felt the need to stand up in the censure debate.

Mr Moore: Will you apologise to me if you are wrong about that?

MR STANHOPE: What, that you stood up in the censure debate? Certainly not.

Mr Moore: You will not apologise.

Mr Smyth: You will not apologise if you are wrong?

Mr Moore: If you are wrong. Okay. Well, you are wrong.

Mr Humphries: Mr Speaker, you ruled earlier today that we could not allege misleading the Assembly unless we put a substantive motion. There was no motion about the 25 questions. Twenty-five questions answered by the Chief Minister were not inaccurate. There were probably a couple of answers that were inaccurate and we apologised for them and withdrew any misleading allegations.

MR STANHOPE: I withdraw any suggestion that - - -

MR SPEAKER: Thank you, Mr Stanhope.

MR STANHOPE: I think I can conclude my contribution on that basis. This motion is absolutely absurd. It is absurd that the Government should seek to censure Mr Corbell when, on the very figures in the document tabled by Mr Humphries, it is obvious that the figures that Mr Corbell used are correct. Mr Corbell used the numbers. There are other numbers he could have used. He could have referred to the fact that the number of planned outage interruptions did increase by 9 per cent. There are other figures in the document tabled by Mr Humphries that he could have used. The number of planned interruptions increased by a couple of thousand, it seems. There are things like that. There are other figures he could have used, but the figures he used were correct figures, and the Government substantiates that in the document. But the Government needs to own up. Why has it moved this motion? It moved this motion for a whole range of other reasons completely unconnected with what Mr Corbell said.

MR MOORE (Minister for Health and Community Care): Mr Speaker, I think it is important for me to draw attention to the fact that I have been misrepresented in this debate. Mr Stanhope repeatedly indicated - - -

Mr Berry: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. Is it usual for you to allow standing order 46 - - -

MR SPEAKER: Just a moment, please. I am looking at standing order 46.

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