John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

It is very interesting. Here we go again. Let the House observe this. For the purpose of the state of Queensland, the Leader of the Opposition is saying, ‘Yes, I am following John Howard on council amalgamations,’ but he gets his environment spokesman, who comes from Sydney, to run a bit of interference on the other side. The old contortionist from Griffith—he cannot help himself. His predecessor as Labor leader was right: he was probably looking at those focus groups and those focus groups were saying, ‘Well, look, on the one hand Beattie has really got you into trouble on this but, on the other hand, you don’t want to sound as though you are against these amalgamations.’ Let me say to the Leader of the Opposition that we have a very simple proposition—that is, let the people of Queensland speak. Don’t try to gag them. ‘Let my people speak,’ is a very good injunction.

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