Page 1117 - Week 04 - Thursday, 29 March 1990
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MR HUMPHRIES: I work very hard, Mrs Grassby. My car is often here on the weekends; I have been working very hard. I think this is a ridiculous proposal. I intend to support Mr Stevenson's motion, but not the amendment put up by Mr Berry.
Mr Stevenson: I rise on a point of clarification. The motion talks about a meal break. Is this the lunchtime meal break or the evening meal break?
Mrs Grassby: No, the dinner one; we do not need it, Mr Stevenson, it is Lent anyway.
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: No, Mr Stevenson, it is the dinner break because we do not sit till 2.30 on Tuesdays.
MR MOORE (4.01): I rise to support Mr Stevenson's motion and to join Mr Humphries in opposing the Wayne Berry Labor motion here. It seems to me that if we were really overladen with government business and we then had to squeeze this business in, then there might be a reason for what Mr Berry is suggesting but, by and large, I think this is not the case. It seems quite appropriate to me to use that evening for private members' business. Hopefully Mr Stevenson will be able to bring on the Bill that he has been so enthusiastic to bring on and I will be just as enthusiastic to oppose it.
MR STEVENSON (4.02): Mr Deputy Speaker, I oppose the amendment to my motion: firstly, the suggestion that when members are not sitting they are not doing anything is an absolute absurdity.
The opportunities of meal breaks while we are sitting give us the chance to get a great deal of work done in meetings with people, discussions and in catching up on other vital work. As a general rule that is not something that should be forgone. As far as the amendment goes, unfortunately I feel that, like so many things that are done, it has a political motivation rather than a sensible or a logical motivation. I think it is unfortunate that more and more people are becoming aware that so many decisions are made, not for valid reasons, but for reasons of point scoring. I speak against the amendment.
MR DUBY (Minister for Finance and Urban Services) (4.03): Mr Deputy Speaker, I rise to speak against the amendment moved by Mr Berry and in support of Mr Stevenson's original motion that the evening session on the Tuesday before Anzac Day be allocated to private members' business. Under the way the standing orders have been put up we are all well aware that unless a provision of this nature is made there would be no private members' business at all that particular week of sittings, because the standing orders lock the private members' business into the Wednesday of the week.
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