Page 79 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 12 February 1991
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concerned, that was a cry in the dark from the Government at that time. No-one else had ever considered that that position might be useful or required - other than people, of course, whose sole motivation is jobs for the boys. So, in further comment on this report, I would be grateful to find out whether in the months that have elapsed the Government's investigations on an administrator have indeed come to anything, what role they consider that position might play, and how they would progress their view that such a job might be necessary. It is my view and my party's view that that job is not necessary; that the Assembly has, in its executive, government, opposition and members arrangements, all that it needs in the technical sense for the good government of this Territory and, as I say, it is in many ways a model for other governments.
I commend the work done in the report. I think that many of the recommendations have caught the Government out. Mr Collaery in particular has been caught in his own traps - in his own rhetoric. We have shown him up for the incompetent person that he is, and the politically motivated person that he is; and I think that the Government has got away very lightly with a kindly response from the Federal Government on the question of extra Ministers, because never was a proposition less deserving.
MR COLLAERY (Attorney-General) (9.18): I was not going to address the Assembly on this issue, because the matters have been adequately dealt with and will be further dealt with by my colleagues. But I cannot resist responding, in measured tone, I trust, to the very strong personal and somewhat snide attack the Leader of the Opposition has made on me. Firstly, I wish the record to show that Ms Follett has once again set the tone for this sitting of the Assembly. She made a very personal attack, devoid of accuracy, which said little for the research that either the Leader of the Opposition, or whatever help is available to her, can do.
Ms Follett read from a recommendation of the select committee that the Chief Minister request the responsible Commonwealth Minister to amend the Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act to remove from the Commonwealth the ultimate power concerning the number of Ministers and transfer it to the ACT Legislative Assembly. The Leader of the Opposition implied that this, combined with the response of the ACT Government - which agreed with that recommendation - led to the conclusion drawn by the member for Canberra, Ros Kelly, that the ministry could not be expanded without an Act of Parliament. The transcript shows that she said that it had to be done by an Act of Parliament. It was pointed out to Ros Kelly on air - and I believe that it got her right between the eyes, as the Leader of the Opposition knows - that section 41 of the self-government Act states very clearly that the number of Ministers can be set by regulation. And, although her comment passed quickly, the Leader of the Opposition would know that regulations are brought in by ministerial
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