Page 2419 - Week 11 - Thursday, 2 November 1989
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
All imputations of improper motives and all personal reflections on Members shall be considered highly disorderly.
MR KAINE: I am not imputing any such motive, Mr Speaker. I am merely identifying Mr Moore for what he is. There were three questions from him.
MR SPEAKER: Mr Kaine, please withdraw the statement so we can get on with it. I believe that it is an imputation. Please withdraw the statement.
MR KAINE: I will simply refer to Mr Moore then as the Labor Party's friend, and I do not think he can take exception to that. But he asked three questions today, Mr Speaker.
Mr Moore: Mr Speaker, I take a point of order. I refer to standing order 55 again. I quite happily sit on the crossbenches. If the Liberal Party were in government, my stance would be the same. The inference and the imputations are there. I request that you ask the Leader of the Opposition to withdraw them.
MR SPEAKER: Please withdraw the imputation, Mr Kaine.
MR KAINE: Mr Speaker, I object. I do not find anything objectionable in referring to Mr Moore as being somebody's friend. I can only assume that he has some conscience on the matter; otherwise he would not take exception to it.
MR SPEAKER: Mr Kaine, I have ruled on the issue. Withdraw the statement.
MR KAINE: Mr Speaker, in deference, I withdraw the imputation. Today, Mr Speaker, we had four questions, three from Mr Moore and one from Mr Wood, and on each of those occasions the Minister to whom it was addressed had a long, prepared, detailed answer to the question - every time. Yet when a question is asked from this side of the house it is shrugged off; it is avoided; they simply refuse to answer it and we get no satisfaction from our questions at all. Mr Speaker, they do not even have the decency to try to hide this. It is done quite blatantly.
Now, I come to the question that I specifically asked of the Minister for Industry, Employment and Education. I referred to a document which he tabled in this house only a matter of days ago. He made a lengthy speech when he tabled it, and he hailed this document as being a valuable document contributing to the future economic well-being of Canberra. In that document he makes a statement, and I will read it:
A recent study, commissioned by the ACT Government, so far unpublished, has examined the potential for commercialising research - - -
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .