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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 12 Hansard (5 December) . . Page.. 3691 ..

MR SPEAKER: Just a moment, please. The chair did not hear that. Mr Quinlan, would you mind resuming your seat for the moment, please. Mr Minister, if you did make that comment and I was in the chair, I certainly did not hear it. But if you did make it, I would ask you to withdraw it.

Mr Moore: Mr Speaker, just for the benefit of the -

MR SPEAKER: If you called Mr Berry a slimeball, I would ask you to withdraw it.

Mr Moore: Mr Speaker, I certainly withdraw any kind of comment I have made about Mr Berry.

MR SPEAKER: Thank you.

Mr Hargreaves: Mr Speaker, that is contempt of the chair. I would ask you to have him do it unqualified.

MR SPEAKER: Unqualified, please.

Mr Moore: Yes, I will withdraw it if you like.

MR SPEAKER: Thank you.

MR QUINLAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. The relevance of the points that I am making, and my particular comment about our political dead man walking, Mr Moore, is that the cumulative effect of the amendments that Mr Moore has now initiated in this place - up to now we have played a little bit of a namby - pamby game, commencing with the one at hand - is directly designed to discriminate against a single club and a single political party. This is born of the malice and malevolence of our political dead man walking.

I could understand that other members of this place, for their own reasons, would want to exclude political donations from the definition of community contributions. This I can understand. I do not think it is an altogether fair - minded approach, but you can understand them doing it, given the actual facts of the matter. However, we are now heading off on the further mile. We are now setting up a structure that will penalise any club - not anybody else in the community, just a club - that makes political donations. According to the Moore philosophy, as I understand it, a club can contribute to any other legal activity, except politics.

This is quite clearly an amendment to legislation that is structured to inhibit the capacity of the Canberra Labor Club, which has openly declared what it has done. The amendment is quite clearly designed to inhibit the club's capacity to support the ALP in the year coming up to an election.

I have said it before in this place today that, by all reports, the expenditure between the two major parties at the last election was of about the same order. Now, for someone like Mr Moore, that is not a palatable situation. Fancy having an even playing field. Fancy having those people from the ALP having the same resources as his conservative friends. (Extension of time granted.)

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