QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

The Hon. M. J. GALLACHER: My question without notice is to the Minister for Industrial Relations. How can the Minister reconcile being Minister for Industrial Relations, a position that demands fairness to both employers and employees, with seeking the national presidency of the Australian Labor Party, which is the political wing of the trade union movement? Would any ordinary person not regard that as a major conflict of interest?

The Hon. J. J. DELLA BOSCA: I find that a very unusual question for the Leader of the Opposition to ask. He knows my answer on all these fronts. I have previously given variations on the answer both in this House and publicly. On the first question about the Labor Party and its history, like the vast majority of members on this side of the Chamber and a few on the other side of the Chamber, I acknowledge that the Australian Labor Party has been here for a very long time. It is very much, as the Premier would say, given his turn of phrase, part of the comfortable furniture of Australian politics. It is important that members opposite understand—they seem not to—that the Australian Labor Party at a national level is not only as old as Federation. It is older than Federation, the Federal parliamentary Labor Party having been formed before Federal Parliament was convened.

The Hon. Dr B. P. V. Pezzutti: The tree of knowledge is dead.

The Hon. J. J. DELLA BOSCA: The Hon. Dr B. P. V. Pezzutti is wrong; the tree of knowledge is very much alive. I will be very proud if the Australian Labor Party national conference elects me as national president in five weeks time. I am led to believe there is a body of opinion of the view that I will be successful in being elected president of the Labor Party. However, I do not count my chickens before they hatch. The matter is very much in the hands of the national conference. The ALP is a democratic party, to its bitter end and to a fault. I am very comfortable in accepting what will be a great honour, one I will embrace as I would embrace any other valuable community role one could play at the same time as being Minister. As for my having a conflict of interest as a result of being Minister for Industrial Relations—

The Hon. M. R. Egan: According to that lot, a member of the Australian Labor Party cannot be Minister for Industrial Relations.

The Hon. J. J. DELLA BOSCA: It is absurd, as the Leader of the Government has pointed out to make such a claim. That would mean that any member of the Australian Labor Party would have a conflict of interest as Minister for Industrial Relations. It would mean any member of the National Party, or any member of Country Labor people, who was a farmer would have a conflict of interest as Minister for Agriculture. It would mean the Minister for Mineral Resources, and Minister for Fisheries would have a conflict of interest if he went fishing or fossicking for gold on the weekend. It is like saying that the Leader of the Government has a conflict of interest when he goes to a bank or he has a conflict of interest as a taxpayer.

The Leader of the Opposition is scraping the bottom of the barrel. I thought he would have a good question for me. He has not been kind to me. He should be kind, because the Leader of the Government has told those opposite that there are two factions. Members opposite should be careful because the Hon. Patricia Forsythe has a military bearing today. She is in a military outfit and a coup could be in the offing. I am a swinging voter. The Treasurer is a Gallacher supporter and the Minister for Juvenile Justice is a Forsythe supporter. I may have it the wrong way round, but my point is I am the man in the middle, so they had better get me on side.

The Hon. M. J. GALLACHER: I ask a supplementary question. Are the Minister's evasive explanation and his refusal to withdraw from seeking the national presidency indications that he will bring to the industrial relations ministry the same tactics that saw him accused of betraying his own faction at the annual conference of the ALP when he offered the Left both Throsby and Macarthur simply to get their support for the national presidency?

The Hon. J. J. DELLA BOSCA: I did not, but I do not intend to canvass that. I am tempted to take a point of order in relation to that question, because it begs the indulgence of the House and is close to being in breach of the standing orders. The Leader of the Opposition has asked a question that does not relate to public affairs. However, I will simply answer his question in this way: He should not believe everything he reads in the papers and, in his case, unless he had an interpreter, he should not try to read anything in the papers. I think that is a sufficient answer to the question.