Page 5050 - Week 17 - Wednesday, 12 December 1990
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Office, rather than making it available to the Opposition and discussing the matter, the Attorney-General sat on it so that he could smugly and cleverly jump up in this Assembly and score some cheap, partisan, political points. Mr Speaker, he brings himself and his Government and their processes into contempt.
I hope we can resolve this point in the new year. We will look very carefully at what the Law Office has said. We are not out to score points on this legislation. We are out to respond to the community concern and if, as the Attorney himself said, we had talked about this matter, it could have been resolved. The office of the Leader of the Opposition tried to talk about this measure on repeated occasions; the Government was not interested. It did not even have the grace to tell us what its concern was. It did not have the courtesy, the simple courtesy, to say what its problem was. Rather, it sat pat for three months in order to produce this legal opinion in an attempt to make some cheap political point and show up the Opposition in some way. Mr Speaker, it is a grubby little tactic and it brings the Government into the ridicule that it properly deserves.
The Opposition is trying to do the right thing on this amendment. We would be happy, as the Leader of the Opposition said on its introduction, to talk to the Government about this Bill. We do not want to score political points; we want to get a reform in place. Instead of addressing the matter in that spirit, discussing it with the Leader of the Opposition's office and advising us of this potential difficulty that the Law Office has indicated - which would have resulted, no doubt, in the Opposition perhaps making some amendments and being in a position to acknowledge the cooperation of the Government and to acknowledge the fact that on this measure both sides of the Assembly could have got together to try to solve a problem for the community - there was nothing; no consultation, no consideration, not even the courtesy of telling the office of the Leader of the Opposition what the problem was. Mr Collaery just wanted five minutes of smugness to jump up in private members' business this morning and appear to be terribly clever. Mr Speaker, nobody thinks the Attorney was terribly clever over this tactic. It was a grubby little tactic and it brings this Assembly further into disrepute, if it is possible for this Government to bring it any further into disrepute.
Debate (on motion by Mrs Grassby) adjourned.
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