Page 689 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 5 July 1989
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of the debate by the Chief Minister on agreement in principle. First of all, that would have allowed the Chief Minister, under the standing orders, 20 minutes to respond. The Chief Minister had a considered Government response to the legislation which would have taken the entire 20 minutes. The whole debate was gagged by the Residents Rally party.
One can only question its motives in doing that. I would suggest, Mr Speaker, that the spontaneous community outrage at the abuse of civil liberties inherent in this Stefaniak legislation has caused the Residents Rally party, in a desperate effort to distance itself from the original proposal, to take this course of action. That is the only construction that can be placed upon it.
We know that the Residents Rally had previously supported the original Stefaniak proposal, but it was the incredible community reaction to this that has caused its members to back-pedal at 100 miles an hour, and they are trying to cover their tracks. And they are trying to do that in two particular ways. One is by circulating, and announcing to the spontaneous demonstration yesterday, their intention to seek to modify the legislation. I must say that, with due deference to Mr Collaery, he has done me the courtesy of providing me with his proposed amendments to the legislation, and I will come back to those in a moment.
The second reaction, and it is this part which I find more disturbing, and part of their effort to distance themselves is their reaction and attitude towards those citizens who are concerned about their rights. Their reaction has been to hurl abuse and ridicule at those people. You heard Mr Collaery last night, and again today, refer to the people who attended this demonstration outside here yesterday in the most insulting and vile language. He has referred to these people as grunters. That is what he called them, Mr Speaker. That is his attitude towards people who exercised their civil rights and expressed their concern about their civil liberties.
It makes a farce of the two cosy little speeches which we heard from the Residents Rally last evening. One was from Dr Kinloch, who spoke about the American Independence Day which is so fundamental to civil liberties. He referred to so many of the members of this Assembly as citizen so-and-so, yet, in the same breath, he was prepared to give his endorsement to this repressive legislation. At the same time, we had Mr Collaery, the Francophile, extolling the virtues of the French Revolution, and extolling the - - -
Mr Collaery: I rise on a point of order, Mr Speaker. The Deputy Chief Minister is speaking to an issue, not to the motion. He proposes shortly to pick up a piece of pink paper, which I note they have chosen upstairs, and he will discuss the terms of my suggested amendments to the Bill. Clearly, he has set about, in his preparatory comments, to debate this Bill. He is getting around the standing
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