Page 1591 - Week 05 - Thursday, 18 April 1991
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MRS GRASSBY: It is relevant because I am worried about the Minister for planning and the sort of people that he is getting around him. It really worries me. And you have been let down, Mr Speaker. I think that is rather nasty. I do not think that is fair, particularly when you have joined the Liberal Party. I think it is very unfair that they should do that.
As I said, Mr Speaker, I have to dissent from this report, along with some of my colleagues and Mr Moore. I feel that it is very sad for Canberra that this is the line that this Liberal coalition is going along with. Of course, the Residents Rally members change their policy as quickly as they change their underclothing and it does not really mean very much to them. But I guess that the people of Canberra will tell them that next February when they throw them out of government.
MR BERRY (5.38): Mr Speaker, I move to suspend so much of standing orders as would prevent me moving a motion of censure of the Chief Minister, the Minister responsible for planning, for being absent from the house for this entire debate. I move:
That so much of the standing and temporary orders be suspended as would prevent Mr Berry moving a motion of censure of the Chief Minister for not being present in the Chamber during the debate on this matter.
Mr Speaker, this is a very important move by the Opposition because this is a very important piece of legislation for the people of the Australian Capital Territory and it has been treated with contempt from the outset. The Government has taken 16 months and has achieved little in relation to it. It has dominated committees of the Assembly which have been set the task of looking at the legislation. It has restricted the time for those committees to look at the legislation and ensured that it could not be done properly. It has ignored the pleas of the Opposition to remove the smell, the taint, if you like, of conflict of interest on its committees in order that the committee process could be accepted by the community.
Mr Speaker, what is most insulting about this entire process is that the Minister responsible for planning, the Chief Minister, has not even bothered to be here during the course of debate over this issue. It is, therefore, absolutely necessary for this Assembly to consider a motion of censure for the contempt that the Chief Minister has shown this Assembly on the issue of planning. He knows that planning is central to the existence of many people in the Australian Capital Territory. It is certainly central to the quality of life in the Australian Capital Territory. I hope that the Chief Minister is aware of that. It appears that he is not interested in that; otherwise he would be here to listen to the debate on this subject.
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