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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 12 Hansard (6 December) . . Page.. 3779 ..

Mr Berry: You are at it again, Gary. I'll explain later.

MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Chief Minister, address your remarks to the chair. Mr Berry, you will have the opportunity to close the debate and to respond.

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, that appears to me, on what I think is a perfectly reasonable reading of the words of this motion, to be the effect of it. Mr Berry may have a different interpretation of the words, but the reality is that that is not what the words, simply and plainly written down, actually mean. They mean that there cannot be an acquisition by Totalcare of government services without prior approval by the Assembly.

Mr Berry: That's not true. No court would find that.

MR HUMPHRIES: That is what the words actually say. If that is the case and there were to be -

Mr Berry: Here we go. Let's hear it again.

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, I appeal for your assistance. I haven't got a single sentence out here without Mr Berry interrupting. I think it is appropriate that this debate be conducted with the capacity for me to make this point. Mr Berry doesn't like what I say, but the fact is that he has yet again come into this place and got it wrong. He has had motions and bills before this place which are poorly thought through, and he reacts badly to criticism of them by saying to people that they are talking rubbish, that they are misleading the Assembly, and that they are making things up. He comes back quietly some weeks afterwards and he quietly concedes that actually they were right, and he amends his motion or acknowledges the problem.

Mr Moore: Or we have to try to fix it up.

MR HUMPHRIES: We have to try to fix it up subsequently. He has done this before, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, and today is an example of that again.

I want Totalcare to operate as a business in the marketplace. That is the job Totalcare has been given. The job, among other things, is to win business.

Mr Berry: And they still will be encouraged to do so.

MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: Mr Berry, you will write history in a moment, sir. I will not speak to you again.

Mr Berry: A point of order, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker -

MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: Sit down, Mr Berry. Sit down.

Mr Berry: No, I am taking a point of order.

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