Page 4362 - Week 15 - Wednesday, 21 November 1990
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
this early stage of the Assembly's history, that any vestige of doubt about the legality or the constitutionality of any aspects of the Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act, or any other Act that establishes this base which is, in fact, our constitution, is very clearly and quickly identified and put to rest. Otherwise, this matter will continue to come up again and again.
It is clearly appropriate that this matter be resolved as quickly as possible. That is one of the reasons why I supported the recommendation of the Administration and Procedures Committee. It is about time that Mr Berry and his colleagues, instead of political grandstanding and seeking to score cheap political points on these issues, adopted the method of bipartisanship. Quite frankly, Mr Berry would not know bipartisanship if he fell over it. He does not know the meaning of the word.
It is about time, on issues that are important to the nature of the Assembly, that the Labor Party opposite - particularly people with a knowledge of these issues, like Mr Connolly - adopted a sensible, reasoned attitude to these things rather than the sort of ideological, "they are trying to get at us" approach.
On that basis, it is appropriate that this matter be referred in the way that Mr Collaery has done and I, therefore, support, in fact, the withdrawal of these motions on the notice paper until the matter is properly resolved.
MR CONNOLLY (11.02): In the words from Alice in Wonderland, this place is getting "curiouser and curiouser" every day. We have just seen the Government in total confusion. Mr Collaery announces a Government decision that this matter is going to go to senior counsel. He says that it will go to Mr Jackson, an eminent queen's counsel, and a former judge of the Federal Court of Australia. We then have Mr Jensen leap up from the back bench and say that it is going to go to the Solicitor-General. Who is it going to go to? How many opinions are we going to get? Are we going to get two opinions? The Government has not announced any indication that it will be accepting the advice of the Administration and Procedures Committee. So, are we going to get two opinions?
I will not debate the law across the chamber with Mr Collaery but I am quite sure that, if we are going to get two opinions, they will be in line. I am quite convinced that the law is compelling. But heaven help us as to what will happen if, as Mr Jensen says, we get an opinion from the Solicitor-General of Australia and we get an opinion from another queen's counsel, and they are at odds. What do we do then? If we are going to go and get two opinions, it will just lead to more and more confusion.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .