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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 13 Hansard (3 December) . . Page.. 4467 ..

MR WOOD (continuing):

It is all quite fierce. And you, Mr Speaker, respond. That is clearly the case. I am particularly angry. Mr Speaker, you may know that I interject and I get cranky when I see this happening, because I know the two standards and I remember with resentment the tough task we had as Ministers standing up with De Domenico and Carnell in full cry from this side of the house.

Mr Humphries mentioned a short time ago that we should get a tape of today's proceedings and play it. I agree with that. I want to go back three years and play a tape from one of those days. I will do that with confidence, knowing where the greater noise will be emanating from. It will be from the Liberals. So, there is not a fair situation here. There is not impartiality. You, Mr Speaker, are under pressure from your colleagues to clamp down on the Opposition, and that should not be the case. You should be fair and impartial. If we were confident of that impartiality and that fairness across this chamber, there would be less noise. If we were confident about processes here, there would be less noise. It is not that I think the level of noise is beyond limitations anyway. That is where we should be going. Until you, Mr Speaker, can stand up to your Chief Minister and your colleagues, we do not have confidence.

MRS LITTLEWOOD (4.37): Mr Speaker, I am one of those new people who have had limited experience in this place. My experience with you has not necessarily been related to this chamber. My experience with you has been mostly outside the chamber. However, I can attest to your impartiality. If people care to cast their minds back just a little way, they will recall that I wanted to hang a banner on the building here to support a local charity. However, after a few comments, I was told quite strongly that I and the Chief Minister - I repeat "and the Chief Minister" - would be censured if we proceeded to do that. Mr Speaker, I do not believe that that action by you at the time showed that you were not being impartial at all. You were being very fair about things. At the time, I must admit, I did not have you as flavour of the month; but that is another story. But you did your job. We came to an agreement and, as a member of the Government and a member of the Liberal Party, I backed off. I think that it is the measure of you, as Speaker, that you are prepared to mete out whatever needs to be meted out to either side or the crossbenchers. I will not be supporting Mr Whitecross's push.

MR CORBELL (4.39): Mr Speaker, this is not a light or easy motion that the Opposition moves this afternoon. It is born of frustration and born of our belief in your inconsistency in chairing this place and your failure to uphold the standing orders fairly. It is not a light step that an opposition takes to seek an expression of a lack of confidence in a Speaker, but it is a point that we have been forced to today by your decision to name Mr Berry for interjecting in question time. Mr Speaker, if you are going to enforce the rule about members being heard in silence, do it consistently. Do it when members of the Government interject and do it when members of the crossbenches interject. I have been in this place for close to a year, and in that time I have not heard you once warn members of the crossbenches or members of your own party.

Mr Osborne: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. I would just like to remind Mr Corbell that both Mr Moore and I have been ejected from this Assembly.

MR CORBELL: Not in the past year that I have been in this place. I would challenge the crossbenchers to indicate to me some time when they have been.

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