Page 3303 - Week 11 - Thursday, 12 September 1991
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My colleague Mr Connolly later on will move an amendment to address the issue of the need for an Assembly committee to look at the matter; and I think that is the most appropriate course, if that is what you have to have. I do not believe that you need an inquiry. You ought to know the answers by now. There has been enough said on alcohol to keep us going for some time. It seems to me that if there is a need for inquiry, if you are desperate to have an inquiry, it ought to be an inquiry looked at within our own structure. It seems to me that the Standing Committee on Social Policy could address this issue, take their time about it and do it properly, and not lumber the government of the day with a quick fix which results in outcomes which nobody has any confidence in. That is the real problem you have.
Then we have to look at the cost of the process. Nobody has attempted to do that and this, I think everybody will agree, is a very expensive process. If you set up one of these inquiries you have to do it with the aim of getting a credible result. That means that you have to have the best people and as many of them as are required to get it done by 30 November.
Mr Moore: And the best terms of reference.
MR BERRY: The terms of reference might be another issue. To get it done by 30 November, I suggest, is a pretty tall order if you want a credible report. I think we are being led up the garden path on this issue. I do not think there is a need for an inquiry at all. I think, essentially, the motion ought to be defeated; but, if the house demands an inquiry, then it ought to be an inquiry conducted by a committee of this Assembly.
MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General, Minister for Housing and Community Services and Minister for Urban Services) (5.23), by leave: I move:
(1) Omit "this Assembly calls upon the ACT government to:
(1) Appoint a Board of Inquiry under the Inquiries Act 1991 into the sale and distribution of liquor and its effect. Such an Inquiry to have terms of reference which are to include, but not necessarily be restricted to:",
substitute: "this Assembly refers to the Standing Committee on Social Policy the question of the sale and distribution of liquor and its effect and that, without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, the inquiry include:".
(2) Omit "(2) The report of the inquiry be submitted by 30 November 1991.".
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