Page 2841 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 15 August 1990
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purse. Clearly, an appropriation Bill appropriates money for a cause. Mr Berry is quite happy; he will allow the standing orders for that. But he also wants to take out of the current standing orders that part of section 65 which does not allow anyone but a Minister to bring in a Bill that has the effect of charging the public purse.
Outside the statutory framework of the Federal Parliament, which is the only body that can constitutionally alter that Act, he wants to put forward an amendment to standing order 200. The amendment of standing orders to allow something which is not permitted by the Commonwealth Act will be ineffective anyway. You can have standing order 200 the way Mr Berry wants it, but you still cannot introduce a Bill, on the current ruling of the Chair, which is contrary to section 65. This is a wasted debate. It anticipates discussion on any ruling which you, Mr Speaker, may be bringing forward on this issue, and it anticipates discussion in the Federal Parliament on the pros and cons of amending section 65.
It also anticipates, for grandstanding purposes, I suspect, the deliberations of the Standing Committee on Administration and Procedures to which this Assembly referred this issue some days ago. Mr Berry will not get his motion through. This is a wasted debate, Mr Speaker.
Mr Berry: Why don't you sit down, then?
Mrs Grassby: Why are you wasting our time, then, if you are going to gag it?
MR COLLAERY: You are wasting your time.
Mr Duby: Put a motion, not a Bill.
MR COLLAERY: Put the motion on the floor.
Mr Berry: We want you to vote.
MR COLLAERY: You would not debate it last week, and you do not really want to debate it. You do not want to debate your own Bill; we know that. Were we to pass the Bill, Mr Speaker, we would, in my respectful opinion, be acting contrary to section 65 of the Act; we would be acting improperly, and that is one of the grounds upon which the Governor-General could dismiss this Assembly. You well know that, and we are not falling for that kind of undergraduate trick. Mr Speaker, this Assembly will not run the risk of passing invalid laws. It ignores the effect of section 65.
Mrs Grassby: God, the senior lawyer in the house does not even know the Act.
MR COLLAERY: And we cannot simply change it. Through you, Mr Speaker: you would be better off, Mrs Grassby, if you had a senior lawyer on your front bench. I cannot think of how excruciating this must be for Mr Connolly.
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