Page 1950 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 24 October 1989
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Mr Whalan: Because you did not do your homework. You had a month's notice and you did not know what the legislation was about.
MR SPEAKER: Order!
MR HUMPHRIES: The program is in a shambles because this Government has not provided consultation with other parties.
Mr Jensen: No consultation.
Mr Whalan: You got a letter inviting you to seek a briefing and you were too dumb to take up the offer.
MR SPEAKER: Order!
MR HUMPHRIES: It introduces 10 Bills into this house in the last few days of the last block of sittings; it interposes two weeks of recess, of which one week is taken up fully by the Estimates Committee, in which most members are fully engaged; and then complains when we are in turn unable to have digested all those 10 Bills.
What is the reason for secrecy? What is the reason for delay? Why not provide the information when you had it? You did not have it when you first introduced it, Mr Berry. You had it a long time before that. Why not tell us about it? I consider, as I said, the processes engaged in by this Government to be unacceptable and I believe that this Assembly must act on that.
As I said last week, it is not only the Government which needs to consult. It is not only the Government which needs to talk to other parties about its program. Opposition parties need to do the same thing and opposition parties are entitled to do that and cannot do it where little notice is given of the Government's intention to introduce Bills.
Look at the daily Bills list which has been provided to members. Look down that list at the contrast between some of the dates on which Bills were presented and some of the dates on which they were passed. Look at the Administration (Amendment) Bill 1989, the fifth Act of this Assembly, introduced on 29 June, passed on 4 July. That is five days. Look at the Public Trustee (Miscellaneous Amendments) (Amendment) Bill 1989, introduced on the same day, 29 June, passed on 4 July - five days. Why can the opposition and the public not have more notice of that kind of action? There is simply no reason for it, Mr Speaker, and the Government stands condemned.
The very issues, the very claims that the Government made with respect to fluoride in this chamber only last week, apply very well to itself - its lack of willingness to consult on issues of dire importance to members of this
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