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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 4 Hansard (28 March) . . Page.. 1061 ..

obvious and what has been confirmed by recent events. For that criticism publicly he was sacked.

Mr Humphries: Not so.

MR WOOD: He was not sacked, according to Mr Humphries and the government. Okay, if you want it that way you can, but it does not seem that way to me. For some public criticism, well based and moderately expressed, he has gone. Are you satisfied with that? Will that do? He has gone. By whatever means, he has been kicked out. I was once minister for the arts and Mr Mico was an arts activist. He would come to me and lobby for various things. He was reliant on government funds for some of the things he was doing. Do you know what? Sometimes he made public comment about what I was doing and what should happen. He also made comment to me personally and wrote letters, because that is Mr Mico. He made public comment. What did I do when he made public comment? Did I go to the bureaucrats and say, "Cut him out"? No, I did not.

Mr Humphries: Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker, I take a point of order. I appreciate that this matter relates to CTEC, but the motion is about documents relating to the move of CTEC to the airport. I do not understand, with great respect, what the multicultural festival has to do with that, other than the difficulty of people being able to get there with respect to the festival. That much is relevant to this motion, but talk about the loss of Mr Mico is not relevant.

MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: I have given Mr Wood latitude and I am sure that Mr Wood is now going to address the amendment and the motion.

MR WOOD: Indeed, and I would point Mr Humphries and you, sir, to paragraph (2) of the motion, which is about access to the clients and staff of the corporation.

MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: I am aware of that.

MR WOOD: I would point your attention to Mr Berry's amendment about misleading information, and I am about to come to that.

MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: I was intrigued as to where Mr Mico needed access.

MR WOOD: The motion has been framed so that I can speak about that. Isn't that the case, Ms Tucker?

Ms Tucker: Yes.

MR WOOD: Indeed. But I am about to move on and address Mr Berry's amendment.

MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: Do not grasp at straws, Mr Wood. Please address the issue before the chair.

MR WOOD: No, there is no straw here. In answer to a question yesterday, the minister said-

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