Page 1542 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 2 May 1990
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These are the questions, I say to Mr Collaery and the Alliance Government, that are to be asked and are being asked by the people of Canberra. These are the questions to which we want to know the answers. So far you have blocked an attempt by the opposition to find a consultative and open way to find out what the police are doing; instead, you have used a closed system. Just to clarify the closed and high-handed method of negotiating, a report in the Canberra Times of 22 February states:
Mr Kaine said he believed negotiations for the transfer of power were being correctly conducted by his Government.
"Our initial task is to determine the ground rules for transferring the responsibility of police from the Commonwealth to ourselves", he said.
"That's Government business, not assembly business".
That is the attitude of this rather high-handed Alliance Government. Do you remember, I say to Mr Collaery and Mr Jensen, who is now the Temporary Deputy Speaker, the days when you talked about a broad-ranging committee system that involved all the members of the Assembly? What kind of an attitude is that, that this is not Assembly business?
This is the business not just of executive government but also of all the people of Canberra, and they ought to be informed and ought to have an opportunity to criticise and be able to offer suggestions about your methods of negotiation and your negotiating on this issue. I have already given examples, particularly in my response to Mr Kaine's budget statement, of ability in negotiation. We need to see much greater and broader consultation on this policing question and the court question, and you still have time to do it. For heaven's sake, get to it and let people know what is going on.
MR COLLAERY (Attorney-General) (3.40): Mr Speaker, I rise before Mr Connolly, simply to facilitate some arrangements with the media because I think publicity is the soul of justice. Their deadlines mean that some of the matters that I wish to table need to go out very quickly. So, in that sense, I will be assuming the role of prosecutor in speaking first and he will assume the role of defence counsel in going last. No doubt, he will give us a very good, statesmanlike response, and I give him that advantage gladly.
Mr Speaker, I want to read into the record - because this is the first time we have touched on matters affecting the judiciary - a quote from the House of Representatives Practice, second edition, at page 489. It is a convention, as I see it, that touches on a couple of these aspects. It states:
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