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NOES, 8 . . Page.. 823 ..

MR BERRY: They did not want him; they kept throwing him back. He took the strongest action possible, to a point where he might have been arrested if he had continued it. If I can continue for a moment longer, I wondered what length Mr Moore would go to to get arrested. It seemed that the police did not want to arrest him, and rightly so, because it was a protest about this issue. But, when I saw a young man scarper across the lawn and do the light fantastic over the top of a car, and he did get arrested, I wondered whether there was somebody in the crowd who might try to upstage him as there was a building nearby, but there was no telephone box. Mr Speaker, this is merely an attempt to get the Liberals off the hook. The Liberals have an opportunity either to make a strong stand or not to make a stand at all. They can support the motion put forward by us and supported by the Greens and Mr Osborne, largely, or they can walk away from it. I think they would be strongly embarrassed if they were to do so. Labor will be opposing the move to divide this question.

MR MOORE (12.46), in reply: Mr Berry is quite wrong when he suggests that the reason I move this is to get the Liberals off the hook. In fact, the amendment is specifically directed at Mr Berry, and the reason it is directed at Mr Berry is that I suspect from past experience that Mr Berry will try to use this opportunity purely for partisan games. I had hoped that separating the question would give this Assembly the opportunity, in a totally united way, to send a clear message to the community that we all deplore the actions of the French Government in moving to conduct more nuclear tests in the South Pacific. There are many people in Australia who do not take that attitude, and this is an opportunity for the Assembly, rather than playing political games, to send a united message to ordinary Australians about that, and then to vote on the tactics. Further division is not necessary because we already know that the amendment put by Mr Humphries has been unanimously adopted by the Assembly. There was not a single voice opposing that amendment. We will then have an opportunity to send a united message to the people of Canberra and the people of Australia and, with a bit of luck, the people of France.

Question put:

That the motion (Mr Moore’s) be agreed to.

The Assembly voted -

Question so resolved in the affirmative.

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