Page 4442 - Week 15 - Wednesday, 21 November 1990
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MR COLLAERY (Attorney-General) (4.49): I think all members here accept the enjoiner that the Chief Minister has given previously on the topic of the arrangement with the Federal Government, and that is that the reviews set forth in the arrangement - the written and signed arrangement - take place. The first review is in December. In other words, there will be ongoing oversight of the fiscal and other aspects of the police arrangement, assisted by the respective treasuries. So certainly the concerns that Mr Moore has stated are included in the arrangement and will be taken up progressively as the arrangement goes into effect.
MR MOORE (4.50): Some of my concerns, to a certain extent, are somewhat allayed by that, because I have some faith in the officials who are doing that; but all the negotiations that have taken place on this police force have yet to come to light. They have all taken place behind closed doors. The whole thing has been a secretive process that we know very, very little about. The real question about the police is: When is this going to become an open process, when are members of the Assembly from this side of the house going to have the opportunity to be involved and when are members of the public going to have a chance to have an input? Certainly the select committee that I proposed recently was one method, and only one method, of going about that. Mr Collaery, while I note and welcome the idea that the review is taking place - and I was aware of it - I do strongly urge you to make it a much more open process and to, at the very, very least, keep us informed. Better still, have members from this side involved and, better still, make it an open process available to the public.
MR COLLAERY (Attorney-General) (4.52): Mr Speaker, firstly, I totally reject the notion that this deal has been worked out behind closed doors. The document itself, which is the one and only principal document that relates to the whole matter, is a public document. The arrangement is a public document, and the arrangement shows that no deal has been made. The arrangement is that both parties spend the year working out just how much it costs to run a police force, what the elements of it are and how the assets division can take place.
Mr Moore wanted to have an early select committee to pre-empt that discovery process and, as I pointed out in this house, that could create disadvantages for the Territory in that we would be publicly nailing our colours to the mast while the Commonwealth sat back and sucked in all of our views, approaches and concerns and got itself into a better position at the negotiating table.
We on this side of the house know about negotiation. Certainly I indicated to the house at the time Mr Moore floated that proposal that we would consider the idea of a select committee when the information was to hand and when, in consultation with the other side of the house, it would
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