Petition-l September, 1976 367 pegielntiiw $esemblg Wednesday, 1 September, 1976 Petition (Gambling Casinos)-Milk Quotas (Urgency)-Questions without Notice- Dissent (Ruling d Mr Deputy3peaker)-Governor's Speech: Address in Reply (Fifth Day's Debate). Mr Speaker (The Hon. Lawrence Borthwick Kelly) took the chair at 2.15 p.m. Mr Speaker offered the Prayer. PETITION Gambling Casinos The Clerk announced the following petition had been lodged for presentation by the honourable member for Albury and that a copy would be referred to the appropriate Minister: The Petition of the undersigned electors in the State of New South Wales respectfully sheweth: (1) There are at present sufficient legal gambling outlets in the State of New South Wales. (2) During the last recently recorded period of a year the amount spent or invested in gambling exceeded the sum of $4,000 million. (3) The opening of casinos will enlarge this expenditure and will create further inroads upon the amount available to families for the conduct of their domestic life and will thus cause hardship to parents and childen in the home and will also, as experience has shown, be an incentive to crimes of stealing, embezzlement and fraud in order to make up for moneys that have been lost through gambling or which are intended for gambling. Your petitioners therefore humbly pray that your honourable House will not legislate to legalize casinos in New South Wales. And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray. Petition received. MILK QUOTAS Urgency Sir ERIC WILLIS (Earlwood), Leader of the Opposition [2.17]: I move: That it is 'a matter of urgent necessity that this House should fo,rthwith consider the following motion, viz., That this House- (1) Deplores the conduct of the Minister for Primary Industries in publicly disclosing in respect of members of this House personal and confidential information obtainable only from government files; (2) Censures the said Minister for so gravely misusing his ministerial authority; and (3) Calls on the Premier to remove him from ofice forthwith. In the opinion of the Premier, the Attorney-General, and some of their colleagues, including the Minister for Decentralisation and Development and Minister for Primary Industries, this may be a matter of levity, but in the opinion of the people of the State it is one of grave importance and of considerable urgency. The matter is urgent because yesterday the first indication was given by the Government that the threat reported in the Sydney Morning Herald of 17th May-which was hotly denied by the Premier- to use personal Bes on Ministers is now being implemented. The matter is urgent because this day this Parliament, without any delay what- ever, must formally and overwhelmingly indicate its revulsion at the practice of invading the privacy of individuals. It is urgent because yesterday it was members of Parliament, and tomorrow it could be anyone. It is urgent because the Premier himself, when Leader of the Opposition, putting the case for a politician's right to a private life, said, "None of us can bear total scrutiny." From yesterday that principle espoused by the Premier has been buried, for the action of his Minister for Decentralisa- tion and Development and Minister for Primary Industries had his full blessing. The Government must be given this opportunity, this day, to state through the Premier whether that principle is to have only a one-day interment or whether it is to remain buried for ever. This matter is urgent because yesterday we had the first evidence that this Government will do, with vengeance, in government, what it sought to do in opposi- tion, that is, to sully the character of persons by innuendo or by attacking them when they are unable to defend themslves. This matter is urgent because this House, this mother of Australian parliaments, must stamp itself this day as a place of true democracy, of democratic and ministerial responsibility and respectability-not as a parliamentary whore-house where those principles can be prostituted by the likes of the Minister for Decentralisation and Development and Minister for Primary Industries. This matter is urgent because, if the rights of parliamentarians who have some opportunity to defend themselves can be treated as they were yesterday, the rights of private citizens in our community, with no opportunity for redress, can be trampled in no time. The matter is urgent because the Minister for Decentralisation and Development and Minister for Primary Industries carried on yesterday the pattern of cowardly attacks set by other members who sit on the Government benches. The member for Charlestown attacked the new member for Kirribilli when that member was not in a position to defend himself. Mr F. J. Walker: On a point of order. It has been ruled on countless occasions that a member when speaking to an urgency motion must address himself specifically to urgency and not debate the substantive motion. It is not enough for the Leader of Urgency-l September, 1976 369 the Opposition to say continually that the matter is urgent when the text of what he is saying relates to the substantive motion and not to the motion of urgency. I put it to you that the Leader of the Opposition is directing himself to the substantive motion. Sir Eric Willis: On the point of order. Obviously, the Attorney-General has leapt to his feet because as I have referred to the member for Charlestown, the Attorney-General is afraid that I shall expose him as the vile, cowardly person he is for attacking people and assassinating their character under the cover of parliamentary privilege. Mr SPEAKER: Order! The Leader of the Opposition is starting to stray from the motion of urgency, as intimated by his reference to the honourable member for Charlestown. The urgency motion is specific. I ask the Leader of the Opposition to speak to the reasons why he believes the matter is urgent and should be dealt with this afternoon by the Parliament. Mr F. J. Walker: On a further point of order. My further point relates to the point of order taken by the Leader of the Opposition. I suggest that that point of order was both frivolous and vexatious, taken only to score a political point and not in an attempt to assist you or the House in any way. I put it to you that the Leader of the Opposition was out of order in taking that point. Mr SPEAKER: Order! I call upon the Leader of the Opposition to speak to his motion of urgency. Sir ERIC WILLIS: I shall ignore the list of examples I could quote relating to members on the other side of the House who have misused parliamentary privilege. The matter is urgent because this reprehensible code of conduct by Labor politicians in this Parliament must be brought to a halt immediately and this House must be given an assurance by the leader of the Government that it will be halted. It is urgent because the Premier himself must immediately give a guarantee to the people of this democratic State of New South Wales that the precedent established yesterday by the Minister for Decentralisation and Development and Minister for Primary Industries will not be followed by other Ministers. For example, by the Minister for Youth and Community Services talking about what he finds in the files of his department about people who were juvenile delinquents; by the Minister for Education revealing information relating to individuals' IQ levels taken at school; by the Treasurer disclosing how much people have in accounts with the Rural Bank; by the Minister of Justice and Minister for Services in relation to confidential court records and confidential records held by the registrar of births, deaths and marriages; by the Attorney-General, encouraged by the member for Illa- warra, raking up details of divorce cases; or by the Minister for Health giving details of the health records of certain people. These are the things that must be stopped before they start. Mr Speaker, the matter is urgent because all members of this Parliament must be given clear guidelines from either yourself or the Premier on the code of conduct to be observed by all members when speaking in this House. If the gloves are to be off for one, they must be off for all-not just for Ministers but for everybody. Of course, we all know that that would bring Parliament into disrepute and could even destroy the parliamentary institution. The matter is urgent because public servants who handle confidential informa- tion in the normal course of their duties must be left with no misunderstanding about the confidentiality of that information-despite the behaviour yesterday of the Minister for Primary Industries. It is urgest that the Premier give an assurance to 24 this House and to the community that his other Ministers are not sitting on hate lists, though such an assurance would be meaningless in respect of the Attorney-General who has his own corporate hate list reminiscent of the enemies lists uncovered in the Watergate scandal. Finally it is urgent because, as the Premier said, "None of us can bear total scrutiny", and there are many on the other side of the House whose private and business practices could not stand total scrutiny. For those reasons I submit that it is urgent that this House should immediately discuss this motion and the misuse or abuse of parliamentry privilege such as we witnessed in this House yesterday. Mr WRAN: (Bass Hill), Premier [2.26]: I am sure all honourable members will appreciate the dilemma in which the Leader of the Opposition finds himself.