Page 751 - Week 05 - Thursday, 6 July 1989
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Mrs Grassby: I said, "Put up or shut up", Mr Collaery.
MR COLLAERY: Put up or shut up - Mr Speaker, that is the classic situation. They are the words that rang around Queensland for 10 or 15 years: "Put up or shut up". That was the view. Those words are very familiar to those smaller people in our community, the community the Rally really speaks for, the community which is under attack here this morning. Here is the blanket to be thrown over the real issues: "Put up or shut up".
A member: Ask Mr Wood. He will tell you.
MR COLLAERY: Mr Wood has left the chamber. One could realise his shame at this tactic being brought in today. The Assembly, Mr Speaker, is not a Star Chamber. The Rally said in its speeches here on the issue of an independent commission against corruption that this chamber should not be a court, it should not be a trial chamber for issues. That applies to issues raised in this Assembly, which are no different from the issues raised since Federation in the other house. Those of us familiar with Australian history will remember the climb to fame and the fall of "Red Ted" Theodore. Now there was a man involved in a variety of issues such as mining leases, direct grants of mining matters and other matters. Ultimately the "put up or shut up" routine failed, and finally Mr Theodore fell from grace. The Rally, of course, has done no more than democratically minded people do across in the other house, and the language, Mr Speaker, from time to time in this chamber seems to be not half as bad as that which we hear in that media and blood sports event of question time in the other house.
Mr Speaker, I suggest that democracy is not well understood by the movers of this motion; they are becoming thin-skinned and defensive. This reaction is really a reaction against the prospect that the Rally's justice policies will shortly be implemented. It is quite relevant for the public to ponder the direction in which the Rally saw itself going in this chamber, and we said very early in the piece during the election campaign that the Rally will support the framing of a constitution embracing accepted concepts of civil and political justice. We said during the election campaign that we believe that some common rights - for example, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly - though enshrined in law, have become persuasive rather than prescriptive. We said during that election campaign that, although by and large the courts have long been vigilant in protecting these common law rights, there have been noticeable lapses in recent times. The Rally said during the election campaign that the evidence tendered to the Fitzgerald commission in Queensland has established that there was an arbitrary legislative withdrawal of freedom of assembly in Queensland accompanied by unjust prosecutions.
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