Page 2366 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 22 June 1994
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Stevenson, I did allow you to continue. Can you make the connection between what you are talking about and the amendment a little clearer? You may proceed.
MR STEVENSON: My opening words concerned whether or not someone should have the right to freedom of speech. Mr Berry and Mr Lamont suggest that I should not. They say that what I say is not acceptable to them. However, I think it is fair that I make the point that we should have freedom of speech. I picked a specifically relevant time when I made some points. This will also handle Mr Lamont's point about any relevance to the first two months of next year.
This Bill also requires someone to present information at a specified time and place. What I have on my desk here is information. I have books and folders and files. That is information. All of us hold information in another place. We hold information in our heads. We hold information in our minds. This Bill can require you to supply information and, if you have information in your head, to write it down and present it in evidence. The Discrimination Act 1991 does that. It also says that there are no rules of evidence. It says many other things, but they are some of them. This is subversive - I repeat, subversive - of our freedoms and rights in Australia, which have been hard won over a long period of time.
Ms Follett: Madam Speaker, again on a point of order: We are not debating the Discrimination Act; we are debating the Public Sector Management Bill, clause 39. I do not believe that it is relevant to go into the detail of the Discrimination Act as Mr Stevenson is doing. We all know that he was totally opposed to it and that he filibustered for three days to try to subvert that Bill. He did not succeed, and he is not going to succeed now. He is merely wasting the time of this Assembly.
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Stevenson, I did ask you to make your remarks relevant.
MR STEVENSON: I had just finished that particular section.
MADAM SPEAKER: Would you please finish your remarks in relation to your own amendments then.
MR STEVENSON: Was any single one of those points I presented in this Assembly reported in the media? To my knowledge, no, not at all.
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Stevenson, speak to your amendments, please.
MR STEVENSON: Mr Lamont suggested that this had more to do with what is going to happen in the first two months of next year. What a nonsensical suggestion! I do not know how they dream these ideas up. That thought would not enter my head. It is bizarre. I understand why people laugh. That is all they think about now. Everything else is wiped out of their lives. They are moving and shaking to do their absolute best. So I understand that it is impossible to suggest to someone like that that any other viewpoint can exist.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .