Page 4367 - Week 15 - Wednesday, 21 November 1990
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The move-on powers legislation is not a good case in point, because the advice obtained was that it did not entail the expenditure of moneys. That was the clear advice. It was advice obtained by Ms Follett's own Law Office. Apparently she has forgotten. It is a wonder what a year in opposition does to one's memory. It was her Law Office that obtained that advice, and it said that it was not blocked under section 65. She accepted that advice. She came on to the floor of the Assembly and debated the issue. The people on this side of the house debated the issue.
It is not true to say that the Government is not prepared to debate these important issues. Of course it is; and those issues are on the notice paper, on the agenda for today's meeting, and they will be discussed in due course, each of them - schools, hospitals, everything.
I think it is time that we got on with the business of accepting that section 65 and standing orders 200 and 201 are extremely important pieces of law - law which binds this Assembly - and we have to know exactly what those pieces of law mean for this Assembly. We cannot continue to debate across the chamber what the section in particular of the self-government Act actually means, because it will be a continuing source of problems. I think we should agree to settle the issue, and the mechanism chosen is by far the most appropriate means.
MS FOLLETT (Leader of the Opposition) (11.16): Mr Deputy Speaker, I would like to remind the Assembly that this is in fact private members' business this morning, and that what we are seeing is, in effect, the Government's attempt to kill off private members' business once and for all. We have heard from one Liberal lackey after another, starting with Mr Prowse and going on with Mr Collaery, about reasons why they are not prepared to pursue private members' business this morning. I do not believe any of it.
The fact must be absolutely evident to everybody in this Assembly, and to everybody in the gallery, that this Government and its lackeys will go on getting advice on this matter until the cows come home. There is absolutely no end point to this process. It is in fact their intention to go on seeking advice until they find some that suits them, until in every case which is the subject of this legislation we are well past the point of no return - until it is too late to do anything about Royal Canberra Hospital, until it is too late to do anything about the schools which they propose to close, until it is too late to do anything about the Ainslie Transfer Station. That is their objective.
They seek to kill off effective private members' business, and this is from a mob that has committed itself to a concept of open government. What a farce! This is, indeed, a house of farce. They will go on obfuscating, delaying, stifling private members' business until they
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