Page 2914 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 14 September 1994
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MR HUMPHRIES: No, they did not say David Lamont. They in fact did answer, as Mr De Domenico just guessed, Mohammed Ali, the boxer - or Cassius Clay, as he was previously known. That would seem to be a pretty extraordinary result. I do not think anybody, even an avid sports fan, would think that a boxer could possibly have ranked as the greatest human being that has ever lived. The explanation for that response, of course, was that the slogan used by Mohammed Ali - "I am the greatest" - was so widely disseminated and permeated the minds of so many people that when they were asked the question - - -
Mr Connolly: It is just that if you did not give that answer he would come around and see you.
MR HUMPHRIES: Yes, that could be the other explanation, but I doubt it. The fact is that so many people heard and understood that description of Mohammed Ali that they responded, "Yes, Mohammed Ali; he is the greatest, obviously".
Mr De Domenico: It has nothing to do with consumer affairs, has it?
MR HUMPHRIES: It has nothing to do with consumer affairs, no. Madam Speaker, I cite this particular instance because people will be aware that this Government has a little self-promoting slogan of its own - not quite as immodest as, "We are the greatest", although nothing would surprise me, frankly. We do have the world's greatest consumer affairs Minister, of course, sitting in the Government's ranks; but, apart from that, everyone else is slightly too modest to be able to declare themselves to be the greatest anything. But they do run with the slogan, the self-promoting slogan, "We are a consultative government". I suppose that if they say it often enough, or frequently enough, in as many places as they can - - -
Mr Kaine: They begin to believe it; that is the trouble.
MR HUMPHRIES: They begin to believe it, and people begin to believe it generally.
Madam Speaker, we had produced before us a few weeks ago this document, Towards a Consultation Protocol, in beautiful off-green; a slender document - - -
Mr Kaine: As befitting the subject matter.
MR HUMPHRIES: As befitting the subject matter; fairly generously spaced; with only one picture - of course, of our ubiquitous Chief Minister - in one of the early pages. This document is the Government's blueprint for proving them to be the consultative government that, of course, their propaganda says that they are. That is the justification for this Government's claim to be a government that listens to what people in the ACT want.
Does the Government deserve this title, Madam Speaker? Frankly, on neither its record to date nor the kinds of plans for future consultation outlined in this document, can we say, in any sense of the word, that this is a consultative government. We simply cannot.
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