Page 273 - Week 01 - Thursday, 14 February 1991
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MR HUMPHRIES: Talking about being on holidays, I wonder why it has taken 10 weeks. It is 10 weeks since these Bills were tabled. Yet only on the morning of the debate do we have amendments from the Opposition.
Mr Kaine: Because they were all on holidays.
MR HUMPHRIES: Apparently they were all on holidays - mentally if not physically - over the last few weeks. I can assure the Assembly that the amendments being circulated by the Attorney are nothing like as fundamental as those which have been proposed by Mr Connolly.
Mr Connolly proposes that we should sink one of the Government's three Bills here today. I would argue, with the greatest respect, that he does so with little regard to the significance of what he is proposing that we should do. It cannot be considered an inconsequential matter. It is obviously extremely significant that the concepts of an inquiry or a board of inquiry and of a royal commission should be merged into the one piece of legislation under the one aegis.
It is a significant development. I do not think that we can take that kind of consideration very lightly. This matter is, of course, up to the Attorney-General. I am sure he will consider Mr Connolly's suggestions and give them due weight. I have to say, for my part, that I think it is pretty rich to have to accept such important amendments on the floor of the Assembly just as we are coming to debate the matter.
The Royal Commissions Bill provides for a response of a very high level to particular circumstances where issues need to be resolved in a factual sense. A royal commission appointed under this Bill does not have a judicial function, but it certainly has judicial powers. The function of a commission obviously is not to make rulings or judgments in the way that a court does, but to make a report and to report those findings to Government within the terms of reference which have been given to that commission.
There is a provision in the Bill for the tabling of the report of such a commission or for the tabling of part of the report by the Chief Minister. That discretion is an important one. It does provide the capacity to take account of a report or part of a report which might be of a confidential nature. Frankly, with the sensitivity of some matters before royal commissions elsewhere in this country, that is important.
The Bill, as Mr Connolly pointed out, in line with the Inquiries Bill, contains the power to give a commission power to summon witnesses, to take evidence and to determine the conduct of an inquiry as the commission sees fit. The powers inherent in a royal commission are significant. They are not only seen to be significant;
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