Page 600 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 12 April 1994
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MR CORNWELL: Thank you for your protection, Madam Speaker. I need it from these people opposite. Finally, at page 15, we have Mr Berry's defence and why he was not about to tell us of VicTAB's decision to kick us out of the superpool. I am very concerned about this particular action by the Minister because it relates right back to the motion that we have moved today and the "deliberate or reckless misleading of the Assembly". We have every right, as elected representatives, to know when something as important as this takes place. It should not be hidden from members of the Assembly. I do not know, Mr Berry, whether you hid it from members of your own Government. You did not take the original VITAB arrangement to Cabinet - we know that - but I do not know whether you withheld this fact from them. Irrespective of whether you did or not, I would suggest to you that your behaviour in this matter is really quite reprehensible because the Assembly members needed to know this information. We are entitled to know it.
Mr Berry: And you do know, because I announced it.
MR CORNWELL: Of course, the reason you did not tell us at the time was that the whole VITAB business was beginning to unravel. It was creating difficulties. You thought, I suppose, that some of the heat might go out of it if you put aside the question of being kicked out of the superpool. If you left that for a few weeks, maybe the heat would go away; maybe, by delaying that announcement, you could get out of the mess that you got yourself into. Of course, it has not worked. I believe, in fairness to this Assembly and to the people of the ACT that you purport to be representing, that you should step down from your position. If you do not step down, I believe that your Chief Minister should remove you and replace you with at least one very enthusiastic member sitting behind you on the back bench.
MADAM SPEAKER: Members, it is customary at this time to suspend the sitting. I believe that it is the wish of the Assembly to suspend now.
Mr Berry: No.
Debate interrupted.
SUSPENSION OF SITTING
Suspension of Standing and Temporary Orders
Motion (by Mr Humphries) proposed:
That so much of the standing and temporary orders be suspended as would prevent Mr Humphries from moving a motion to suspend the sitting.
MS FOLLETT (Chief Minister and Treasurer) (6.34): Madam Speaker, I consider this to be an absolutely outrageous motion put forward by Mr Humphries. The fact is that we have before us one of the most serious matters that this Assembly has to consider, and that is confidence in a Minister. Madam Speaker, this motion was brought up on the timing of the Liberal Party, and their timing was agreed to by members in this chamber.
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