Page 272 - Week 01 - Thursday, 14 February 1991
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MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Berry says, "Rubbish". Mr Berry obviously does not pay attention to what happens in other places in this country where every government preserves the right to use royal commissions. Whatever their view of the anachronism or otherwise of the title, every government preserves the right to use and, in fact, does use, on occasions, the capacity to appoint royal commissions. Every government realises that the aura and importance of such mechanisms are an important part of delivering, on occasions, a response to particular, exceptional circumstances.
I think that we have to draw a distinction between the sorts of instances where inquiries under the Inquiries Bill may be held and those where royal commissions might be appointed under the Royal Commissions Bill. Obviously, that distinction is blurred under Mr Connolly's proposals.
The comments that Mr Connolly makes do sound to me very much like the sorts of things that one would expect to hear from a person who grew up under Don Dunstan. I can see a great many features of the South Australian environment rubbing off on Mr Connolly and he, in turn, is attempting to rub them off onto the Assembly and then onto the ACT.
Perhaps in the course of time the ACT will be looking at becoming a progressive jurisdiction like South Australia. For the moment we believe that it is our job as a government to provide the ACT with mechanisms which are appropriate to its circumstances and which reflect the powers, broadly speaking, that are enjoyed by other governments in Australia. It seems to me to be entirely appropriate that a royal commissions enactment is one of the important features of acquiring the rights and prerogatives of other governments.
I also have to say that I am disturbed that Mr Connolly proposes amendments which we on this side of the chamber have not yet seen. Although he now describes them as fairly minor, they sounded fairly major when he began to speak. Perhaps copies of them have been circulated as I have been speaking, but I do not see one on my desk. Apparently, they have not been circulated. I have to say that it is rather unfortunate that we have legislation as major as this and we have a proposal, in effect, to sink one of the Government's three Bills coming before the Assembly today and we have not yet seen the Opposition's amendments. They are arriving right now.
Mr Connolly: The Government ones are.
MR HUMPHRIES: The Government amendments are arriving. We have not yet seen the Opposition's amendments.
Mr Moore: It illustrates how busy the Opposition has been while the Government has been on holidays.
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