Page 778 - Week 05 - Thursday, 6 July 1989
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Mrs Grassby: Could he give the evidence which the Chief Minister asked for?
Mr Whalan: Sit down.
MR SPEAKER: Thank you, Mrs Grassby.
MR COLLAERY: You were supported in that request for Mrs Grassby to sit down by Mr Whalan, who also told her to sit down. I thank Mr Whalan for keeping control of the house, as he usually does.
MR SPEAKER: I take objection to that.
Mrs Grassby: Yes, I take objection to it, too. You do a good job, Mr Speaker.
MR COLLAERY: I withdraw that comment, Mr Speaker. I meant keeping control of his party, as he usually does. Mr Speaker, that was my first big mistake; I hope there are no more. I am advised that Mr Whalan has three times said that the casino will proceed after the casino review committee was formed. I ask him to respond to that. I ask him to respond to the suggestion the Rally has received that someone in this town is saying he has got the casino job. I ask him to detail the length of time he has known that person, the extent of his social liaison with that person, if any, and I challenge him to indicate whether he will confirm to the house that the Australian Labor Party received in recent times donations from construction companies and, if so, the size of those donations and from whom they were received.
Mr Speaker, what is wrong with that sort of question? Is that an improper request? What is wrong with using this Assembly to ask questions of those who purport to govern us? The prospect that this motion offers to the Rally is that we can get the time this afternoon to be a little more specific. Over the lunch hour we may well produce some statutory declarations. I do not know if we can manage it in this time. If we had been given notice we would have done that, but it is a strange state of affairs when those to be guillotined erect the guillotine.
The fact is that there is one aspect that I cannot comment on in this town because there is a sub judice consideration on one of the matters that the Rally is concerned about. I am restrained in that regard, and I am sure that all the members will appreciate that the Rally wishes to proceed properly in a statesmanlike fashion to throw light on the oft-expressed concerns, often in editorials in this city, about how the city is governed and whether we have a real commitment to the highest values of keeping people at arm's length in the city.
One part of our concern about the section 19 development which is implicit in my question of Mr Whalan is that the Rally's policy, stated before the election, is that one of
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