Page 1131 - Week 04 - Thursday, 29 March 1990
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MR COLLAERY: Perhaps Mrs Grassby will come to realise the significance of the amendment and the need for this Government to act correctly, with propriety and with the benefit of reflection and advice. Mr Speaker, simply because of your earlier rulings on relevance, I am not able to address that issue but I have alluded to some matters. First, I want to clarify one of the questions raised and that was whether leave is required even though we are not sitting. It appears to me that section 14 of the Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act clearly indicates that members need to seek leave from sittings, from meetings of the Assembly. Section 14 says:
(1) A member vacates office if the member: -
That is, he loses his place in the house -
(a) at any time after the beginning of the first meeting of the Assembly after a general election, is not qualified to take a seat as a member; or
(b) is absent without the permission of the Assembly from
(i) such number of consecutive meetings as is specified ...
Mr Speaker, clearly the Act anticipates consecutive meetings. It has not been the practice of this Assembly for members to seek leave from committee meetings. They have simply not been able to attend and the chairpersons of those committees have noted that. We have extended those courtesies to each other in the past.
I want to put clearly on the record the Government's view on this point, and that is that leave of absence should be sought in the form that has been adopted in the other House across the lake - that is, that a member is granted leave. There is not an arguable issue introduced into that motion. I direct members' attention to the House of Representatives Practice, second edition. You will note in the index a series of references to this issue, beginning on page 188.
Bearing in mind the extreme penalties that may apply, I, as Attorney-General, am within my rights in trying to find time, in the few hours we have had since the Executive learnt of this matter, to determine a number of issues relating to Mr Moore's proposed trip to England, Amsterdam and Hong Kong. To my knowledge, no member of the Executive Government has any idea of the itinerary. I believe that the trip is to do with the committee's purposes. The Government has no wish to cross the very delicate boundary on the separation of power doctrine between the Executive and the legislature. All I say at this stage, Mr Speaker, is that we grant Mr Moore leave, but we do not agree to the words afterwards.
MR MOORE (4.48): I rise to speak to the amendment. Mr Speaker, the reason for the form of words was - and as a
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