Page 4193 - Week 14 - Thursday, 25 October 1990
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important matter, Mr Deputy Speaker. It needs to be addressed by the Government, and I expect that we will get a full and public statement to that effect.
Referring to travel or, as Mr Moore said, the T word, it also brings into question the interesting media reports that I have heard on the ABC news this afternoon concerning a member of the Assembly travelling on the roads of this Territory without registration of a motor vehicle and apparently without an ACT licence, but holding an interstate licence while presumably a resident of this Territory, because one cannot be a member of this Assembly unless one is a resident of the Territory. Equally, one cannot travel in the ACT with an interstate drivers licence unless one is a resident of another State or Territory and not of this place. It is a rather serious suggestion to be made concerning a member of this Assembly, which continues to put that member and this place into disrepute.
But, Mr Deputy Speaker, the exquisite irony of the circumstances is that yesterday in a debate on police matters the member concerned made a very pious speech about how politicians should set standards and how politicians are disliked and lose respect, not so much because of what they have said but far more because of what they have done, and calling on members of this place to set high standards for themselves.
It is of some concern if a member of this place has been, for quite some time, acting in clear breach of the law. I think that again it is a matter that the Speaker ought to be considering because we all use the car park downstairs and we apparently have an unregistered vehicle moving about down there. If it hit an Assembly vehicle or our vehicles or indeed, heaven help us, hit us, where would we stand? We would not; we would be lying under the vehicle.
Mr Berry: Mr Deputy Speaker, I would like to raise a point of order. It relates to the entitlement of the two Ministers involved to take their seats in this parliament. It seems to me that the Ministers have taken or agreed to take, directly or indirectly, remuneration, allowance, honorarium or award for services rendered in the Assembly otherwise than under section 73. Section 73 makes it clear that:
A person shall, in respect of services in an office, be paid such remuneration as is determined by the Remuneration Tribunal ...
It strikes me that the Ministers have contravened section 14, and the Chief Minister has said that they have done so. On that point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker, I would call on you to take legal advice as to the entitlement of the Ministers to take their seats in the parliament and ask that the members of the Assembly be advised before the next day of sitting.
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