Page 4274 - Week 15 - Tuesday, 20 November 1990
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I am sure that the great majority of people out there in the community are expecting those particular recommendations to happen fairly quickly. I am sure that they will. They have certainly been around for some considerable time and, as was mentioned earlier by Mr Jensen, they were first given notice of over a year ago.
In conclusion, Mr Speaker, I would also like to state that I do not believe that there will be many fences popping up all over the place. I think that what we have done here as a committee is to give people the opportunity to have a choice in such matters. I think this is something that is very important for those residents in our suburbs. The freedom of choice is a very important principle, provided that there are guidelines in place. The recommendations in the report tabled today will offer that choice and those guidelines. I commend the report to the Assembly.
MR BERRY (5.08): This report, Mr Speaker, is a disaster for Canberra if it is accepted by the Government. Firstly, I want to talk about some comments that Mr Jensen made in relation to the Labor Party,s participation in committees which are chaired by Executive Deputies. Our position has been made clear, and I will not dwell on it for too long. I think we have been proven to be correct in believing that the participation of Executive Deputies, so close as they are to the Ministers of - dare I say it - their choice, has rendered the process of committees in which they participate ineffective. I think it has been rendered ineffective by the perception that the community would have of the independent nature that committees ought to have.
I will refer to the last couple of paragraphs of my additional statement to the report. One only has to refer to Lord Denning,s statement when he said:
The court looks at the impression which would be given to other people. Even if he was as impartial as could be, nevertheless if right minded persons would think that in the circumstances, there was a real likelihood of bias on his part then he should not sit ...
I will read into the record my final paragraph, which states:
I repeat that the Labor Opposition is keen to participate fully in an Assembly committee system which is not under a cloud regarding its independence.
Mr Speaker, I will go back to the report. I heard Mrs Nolan say that she weighed up the evidence. I have had a look at the evidence as it appears in the report, and it seems that the balance did not work too well because this has boiled down to a win for the noisy minority in this town. I note on page 13 of the report that, from the tens of thousands of householders in this
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