Page 1293 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 23 August 1989
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Residents Rally; it has nothing whatsoever to do with a personal problem - it was in response to this man over here, making a lying attack on me and Ros Kelly.
MR SPEAKER: Order! The comment was withdrawn. I do not think it requires - - -
Mr Whalan: Mr Speaker, it does not matter if it was withdrawn; it was said. Once it is said, it leaves an indelible footprint, and that is how these people act. They do not care if they blacken people's characters. That is the deliberate way in which they operate. They just give a throwaway line like this and then say, "Oh, well, we'll withdraw that; it has never been said".
MR SPEAKER: Please proceed, Mr Collaery.
MR COLLAERY: My comments were not referring to the withdrawn comment, the properly withdrawn comment, by my colleague Mr Moore, but the more personal and acid comments that the Deputy Chief Minister made about the Rally in the Assembly here in the company, of course, of Rod Driver from the BWIU and others, with whom we did enjoy a reasonably good reputation until propositions were put about the manner in which we were really opposing their interests. It is sad to see that level of conflict arising. Let me assure you, Mr Speaker, that on this motion put by my colleague Mr Kaine the Rally stands foursquare and we are pleased to support that proportion of Mr Whalan's comments that were addressed to the motion and supported the motion.
The fact is, Mr Speaker, that one day perhaps Mr Kaine will be in government, and perhaps the Rally and others, and there will be access to the files. In a way, one hopes that Mr Whalan is still in the Assembly when the files of the years that he was adviser to successive Ministers are revealed, because we have already had an insight from my colleague Mr Moore from copies of some subpoenaed documents that reveal that Mr Whalan was the adviser when the Minister made a decision that really was to preclude, or the NCDC proposed to preclude, development on the Concrete Constructions site.
So there may be many inconsistencies. Perhaps we will let history judge those, but we note the fact that the Deputy Chief Minister has changed his view and is now in favour of development on the site, and we welcome that advent. We truly believe that this Deputy Chief Minister has taken the message from the calls by the BWIU and the others in this community for a planning appeals structure and for certainty in the system to be delivered. If ever a message was given on 4 March, it was that planning was high in the priorities of this Territory.
The Rally had support in some very interesting business circles in that desire to have a planning structure. We have now reached 100-odd days and the proposal has not come forward from the Labor minority Government. That is in the
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