Page 767 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 13 April 1994
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MR STEVENSON: Madam Speaker, I also seek leave to make a statement on the matter.
Leave granted.
MR STEVENSON: First of all, I should comment on how enthralled I am that Mr Kaine is working on a Valiant. I have had different opinions of Mr Kaine over the years but that statement has markedly increased my understanding. I mainly want to talk about Mr Berry's claim of some form of collusion or conspiracy on the vote that we took last night. Mr Berry said that he would resign because of the threat to the Government. The Chief Minister said, "Consistent with traditions of Westminster government, Mr Berry has now offered, and I have accepted, his resignation". One of these statements is false. One of them is false and misleading.
There is no doubt that the best form of government if you want full control is a dictatorship. It simply brooks no opposition. If someone dissents they are dead. I can understand why people who think that they are born to rule feel that they should not brook any opposition. Fortunately, total power is not in some people's hands. Mr Berry suggested that Independents are the cause of the machine parties' problems in Australia, not only in this Assembly. I want to make a couple of points on that. First of all, there are not enough Independents in any single parliament in Australia to make a vote successful. There simply are not enough. Any time there is a vote Independents vote one way on you will always find the Labor Party or the Liberal Party voting on that same side to pass a particular motion. The Labor Party did not mention that when Greiner came undone it was not because of the Independents. They had only a few votes. It was the Labor Party that did it. So why make a false and misleading claim? Why make false claims in this Assembly? In this Assembly nine members said that Mr Berry had misled this house. Anyone reading the evidence will agree, unless they are biased or cannot - - -
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Stevenson, order! You were the one who raised the point of order, Mr Stevenson, in relation to alluding to a vote. I refer you to your own point of order and I ask you to take care when you are referring to these matters. You are on your feet with leave to make a statement about the resignation of Mr Berry, not the debate that we had yesterday. Please proceed.
MR STEVENSON: Madam Speaker, the reason I sought leave and the reason I am on my feet is that when Mr Moore and I both took a point of order on Mr Berry claiming collusion you said, and I am not disagreeing with your ruling, that that was fine. If it was fine I must now have the same opportunity to counter what is a serious allegation, the allegation of collusion that he repeated again and again throughout his speech, with no point of order being upheld; but I thank you for your comments.
Mr Berry suggested that it was appalling that we had an opportunity to have a dinner break and that the Liberals would lobby us. The truth of the matter is that I was not lobbied by any of the Liberal members during the dinner break. I did go and see Mr Humphries on one legal point. I went up there.
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