Page 4659 - Week 15 - Wednesday, 7 December 1994
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Mr Moore: I raise a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. Perhaps you should rule the debate out of order.
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: No, I do not believe that we need to rule the debate out of order, Mr Moore; but I would remind speakers - I repeat - that all imputations of improper motives, under standing order 55, will be, in my case, considered highly disorderly.
MR KAINE (11.00): Mr Deputy Speaker, I will be brief because the subject does not warrant very much of my time or anybody else's, quite frankly. There is no question of principle here. I must say that I am disappointed that Mr Berry would bring up such a subject because, by bringing it up, there is an imputation that some members of this Assembly are doing something wrong or reprehensible. If that is not the imputation, what is the purpose of this motion? Mr Berry says in his motion, "Members are elected to serve the community in a full-time capacity". Nobody is questioning that. I am quite happy for Mr Berry to do a full review of the time that I have put into this job since I was elected to it six years ago. As a Chief Minister, as a Leader of the Opposition and as a backbencher, I have consistently put into the business of the affairs of this Territory 80 to 90 hours a week, and in some weeks more.
Mr Berry: Have you another job, too?
MR KAINE: No, I do not.
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!
Mr Berry: Fine. What are you worrying about?
MR KAINE: No, I do not, Mr Berry. That is the point that I am making. I do not think that there is anybody in this place who shirks their responsibility to do what they were elected to do. If Mr Berry is suggesting otherwise, he is impugning the personalities and the characters of people here. I do not accept that anybody is shirking their responsibility. When he says "full-time capacity", does he mean 168 hours a week? Is that what he means by full-time, or is he talking about a 40-hour week like all of his union mates demand, or less, and if they work more than that they get triple time or double time and a half? Is that what he is talking about by full-time employment? I do not see it in that sense. I put into this place, and I will continue to put into this place, as many hours as it demands, and so, I suggest, does everybody else. It is a pity that Mr Berry has to suggest that somehow or other we are shirking our responsibilities. I deny that.
He says in his motion, "Members so elected should not engage in the activities of any business, trade or profession". I am, by profession, a qualified accountant; so if I choose, in an honorary capacity, to maintain some books for a charitable organisation, in accordance with Mr Berry's motion I have to stop doing that; I am not allowed to engage in anything to do with my profession. What rubbish! What absolute rubbish! I would challenge Mr Berry to give me any facts on any other parliament in Australia that has this kind of prescription. People come into this place as individuals. Some of them come from farms. Is he saying that if a farmer or pastoralist is elected to a parliament he should sell off the farm, that he can no longer run the farm? What a load of codswallop!
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