Page 49 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 23 May 1989
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A member: We have heard a rumour that it was Michael Moore.
MR HUMPHRIES: Indeed, I have heard many rumours and I believe that any of them could be true. Even if that were so, the fact is that there is ample historical precedent for the fact that oppositions on occasions do support governments, particularly minority governments. That has happened many, many times in the course of parliamentary history throughout the Commonwealth. There have been occasions when oppositions have, for a variety of reasons, supported governments. That does not mean that they fail to be oppositions because they are in that position.
The members of the Government, wisely, abstained on the vote for Opposition Leader. I think that was a desirable precedent to set. I hope it is a precedent. Certainly if that had not been the case, I would have been not only supporting the motion from the Residents Rally but actually leading it. I hope that in future years that precedent is also followed should we be in that position again. But, as I said, I do hope in the future years this position would not be repeated and that one party would have a majority of seats when it was not in government and that that party would automatically become the opposition.
MR WHALAN (Minister for Industry, Employment and Education) (4.01): Like Dr Kinloch, I rise more in sorrow than in anger. Dr Kinloch is an outstanding person in the Residents Rally because he is a man of integrity, honesty and genuine concern for people in the community, and particularly people in this chamber. That is what makes him outstanding in the Residents Rally. But I must point out to Dr Kinloch that his memory seems to have faded just a little bit, maybe as a result of the long election campaign and the period that resulted from it. Dr Kinloch participated in quite protracted negotiations that took place between the Residents Rally and the Australian Labor Party when we were seeking to establish a coalition relationship with the Residents Rally prior to the first meeting of the Assembly.
During those discussions we presented to the Residents Rally, in writing, a series of proposed amendments to the standing orders that we believed would be appropriate and should be agreed upon as part of the negotiations between the parties. The negotiations concentrated on policies, allocation of portfolio responsibilities and amendments to the standing orders. Included in those amendments to the standing orders which were handed - again, I emphasise, in writing - to the Residents Rally was a proposal that there be elected by the chamber a leader of the opposition.
They were handed specifically to Bernard Collaery by our leader, Rosemary Follett, on the undertaking that they be taken away and examined. At the subsequent meeting - and we were meeting every two or three days with the Residents Rally; they went on day after day after day - Rosemary
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