BY MICHAEL DAY

LABOR MLC Mark Nevill was at odds yesterday with Opposition Leader Jim McGinty who said two weeks ago Mr Neviil appeared to have presented just one side of the Rindos affair to Parliament.

The member for the mining and pastoral region, Mr Nevill is just back from India and said Mr McGinty had yet to speak to him about his December 14 speech on the long-running controversy at the University of WA.

Mr Nevill said he had not seen anything which showed him the Rindos case was suspect.

UWA officials have described the selection of annotated documents Mr Nevill tabled in Parliament as biased. Asked if the documents were given to him by former UWA academic David Rindos, Mr Nevill said he had been helped by Dr Rindos but had changed many of the annotations written by the academic.

In his speech, Mr Nevill strongly criticised UWA vice-chancellor Fay Gale and made an innuendo about her private life. Mr Nevill said he could not remember if he had checked the information on which he based his statements about Professor Gale. "I spent 18 months on research--I've got no apologies for what I said," Mr Nevill said.

Asked if he had a responsibility to check information before repeating it under parliamentary privilege, Mr Nevill said he thought his speech was balanced and well-researched. "I don't believe I have gone over the top," he said.

Mr Nevill said he understood that early on there had been a strong relationship between Professor Gale and archaeology professor Sandra Bowdler.

"I'm not talking about sexual relationships," he said. "I don't know anything about her (Professor Gale's) private life. Somebody told me recently the two can't stand each other but the information I had was they were very close friends."

The West Australian understands Professor Gale and Professor Bowdler are cordial as colleagues but have met on only a few occasions. They have never been friends.

Mr Nevill, who has conceded he has not spoken to Professor Bowdler said yesterday that some information he had about her was anecdotal but fitted into a pattern.

"I'm no bloody ogre--I made a long speech and the vast majority of it was based on documents," he said.

Mr Nevill said there was no personal benefit for him to push the Rindos issue. "I am not a member of the homosexual community," he said. He had not worked at Yakabindie and had no financial interest in the proposed mining development there.

Mr Nevill has said he began his investigations on the suggestion of Kalgoorlie MHR Graeme Campbell.

Political pressure from Mr Campbell and lobbying from Dominion Mining preceded UWA's decision at the height of the Rindos affair to close its archaeological consulting arm, the Centre for Prehistory.