Page 5103 - Week 17 - Wednesday, 12 December 1990
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MR JENSEN (3.41) I will speak very briefly on this matter. The Government in fact will be tabling its ongoing legislative program in the near future, and those opposite may wish, once that has been tabled, to discuss the process of some of those Bills and their content as they may be interested. That is an offer that is clearly made to those opposite. One trusts, of course, that this time the Opposition will provide the necessary leave for this list to be tabled. I seem to recall that the last time the Government proposed to do this, even though Opposition members were advised of the subject matter at the time - not prior to that time, I agree - they sought to deny leave, and I think that was probably to their detriment.
I just wish to make one comment in relation to the points made by Mr Moore in relation to the events of last night. Certainly my advice is that Mr Moore was given an opportunity, along with Mr Connolly, to express his concerns and discuss them with officials of the Chief Minister's Department who were responsible for preparing that legislation. The clear situation was that Mr Moore's concerns were noted, but it was decided by the Government that it was not appropriate at this time to take those amendments on board and put them through as he had requested. It was on that basis that the Government did not in fact support the proposals that Mr Moore decided to bring forward. I think that during the period of the debate there were a couple of occasions when members on this side of the house rose to indicate quite clearly why they in fact were not proposing to support Mr Moore's amendments. I also note for the record that it was only on, I think, one or two occasions that Mr Connolly, who had received the same sort of briefing and discussion as Mr Moore did, chose to support in any great detail the suggestions that Mr Moore was making. I just need to get that on the record so that Mr Moore is aware of it.
I think he is also aware of the important requirement to have that legislation passed - and that is not the only legislation that is required to be passed during this next day and a half. I think it was important to make sure that that legislation was put through because we were not sure of - and we cannot control - the way that the Federal Parliament will deal with the legislation that affects this house. Some of it, of course, we all agree should in fact be under the control of this Assembly, but in fact the Federal Parliament has chosen otherwise. With those brief comments, Mr Speaker, I think I will complete my remarks.
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