Page 2440 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 7 August 1990
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65, a member speaking to the question, so he is unable to ask for the adjournment of the debate. Someone else can and it will be put forthwith.
MR MOORE (4.38): One of the things that we are all wondering about concerns the robes of the Speaker. Is he wearing the wig or is he one?
It would appear that the Administration and Procedures Committee that I went through and wrote to as chair of the HIV, Illegal Drugs and Prostitution Committee, provided advice to the Speaker as to whether or not I should go. That would be a normal method of dealing with these sorts of circumstances.
I think what we are really dealing with is politeness and letting people know what is going on. That, to my way of thinking, is not enough reason to knock back leave and I will be supporting Mr Collaery's motion that we give the Speaker leave. However, I would like to draw attention to a couple of things. One is that had we all known beforehand that that was the intention then we would have been quite prepared, and I am sure my Labor colleagues would have been quite prepared, to give him leave as well. It was just a simple courtesy.
As for when the motion was put, clearly this matter of business for the house was not on the daily program. It was certainly not discussed between myself and your whip and his new Liberal Party whip until just a few minutes ago. So, it is quite clear that what we have is a knee-jerk reaction which is very important, particularly for the Liberal Party, because one of the problems with not granting leave to the Speaker is that if we go to the Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act, section 14(1), it states that:
A member vacates office if the member ...
is absent without the permission of the Assembly from:
(i) such number of consecutive meetings as is specified by enactment -
which has not been done -
or
(ii) if no such enactment is in force - 4 consecutive meetings of the Assembly ...
So then what would happen is that Mr Prowse would actually be ejected from the Assembly, and since the No Self Government Party no longer exists and he is actually at this stage at least an independent, then the Assembly as a whole would have to decide who was going to replace him. And, of course, that would be very difficult, unless we were quick enough to get an enactment in to change it from four days to six or seven days.
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