Page 3293 - Week 10 - Thursday, 25 August 2005
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To say that someone was searched in the PSU, found to have a knife and had the knife removed from them and then to suggest that there was a stabbing are two very different things. That is exactly the point I was seeking to make in the adjournment debate yesterday—that in asking questions you have rights and responsibilities, being conscious of your position; that you have the opportunity to ask the government questions and raise allegations, but you should do so in a way which is responsible, which is considered and which has some basis in fact.
The difficulty with what we have seen from the opposition in the past 12 months in particular is that increasingly they do not care about the facts and increasingly they do not care about whether something is right; they just want to make allegations. We saw that in relation to Mr Stefaniak the other day when he deliberately misconstrued the comments of the Chief Justice in relation to the separation of powers and was censured in this place by a majority of this Assembly for his behaviour.
That is unfortunately the increasing trend we are seeing from the Liberal Party in this place. It does not matter about the facts; it does not matter about whether there is any truth in the allegation. Make it; it sounds good; someone will give it a run somewhere. Those are not the actions of a responsible opposition that is trying to gain credibility in this place as an alternative government; those are the actions of a desperate opposition prepared to throw anything to make the point and damn the consequences, let alone the truth.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
The Assembly adjourned at 5.57 pm.
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