Page 818 - Week 03 - Thursday, 22 March 1990
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with that Bill is here, yet the Government is once again using its numbers to deny the Assembly the opportunity to proceed with this important item of business.
I wish to place it on the record, Mr Speaker, that we are prepared to go on with that business this evening and that I think it is extremely regrettable that the Government is not prepared to do so. It is just symptomatic of the attitude of this Government that it will use its numbers - and only its numbers, not its wits - to dominate the proceedings in this Assembly. That is exactly what the Government did during the censure motion this afternoon. It did not attempt to defend Mr Collaery; it simply used its numbers in order to deal with the debate in a way that addressed none of the issues whatsoever. It did not even attempt to do so, it just used its numbers like the bully boys that its members are to get rid of the debate and get rid of one of my members. That is exactly what they are doing with the business that is before the Assembly this evening.
I think that their behaviour is absolutely atrocious. As I have said before, this is a lazy inactive Government, more concerned with getting on with its own business, just as it was on Tuesday when two of its members took the night off. The Government used its numbers on that occasion to deny us a sitting of the Assembly. There was no attempt at consultation, no attempt at reaching agreement on that matter. The same has been done this evening. We are ready to go on with the business; it is quite clear that the Government is not.
Australian Medical Association - Presidency
MR HUMPHRIES (Minister for Health, Education and the Arts) (7.09): Mr Speaker, I will resist the temptation to get involved in this particular argument and speak about something entirely different. I wanted to say a few words to mark the retirement of Dr John Donovan from the presidency of the ACT branch of the Australian Medical Association today. Dr Donovan has served for the last 12 months in that position. He has been an active member of a large number of professional organisations in Australia and has held senior posts in the Federal Department of Health and the Australian Institute of Health.
I think that he is worthy of some attention at this time because in the past year a spirit of cooperation has developed very much between his association and officers of the Department of Health, and I think I probably speak in those terms not only for myself but also for my predecessor. He is not listening, so I do not know whether I do. Anyway, Dr Donovan has been active in the process of developing that spirit of cooperation; he has been the linchpin in some negotiations that have been conducted between my department and areas of the medical profession;
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