Page 3487 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 18 September 1991
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I checked with Peter Sutherland yesterday and I think Mr Collaery did as well. That meeting of peak groups circulated in the Assembly yesterday some comments about the guardianship legislation. They were quite happy for it to go through the in-principle stage only. That was the difference. In fact, Mr Connolly had accepted that it would go to the in-principle stage only, because that did not interfere with the consultation.
The reason I was prepared to agree to that particular Bill going to the in-principle stage was that there had been so much community consultation on it - this contrasts with what I said earlier - and due credit goes to Mr Collaery for that over nearly two years. There had already been a tremendous amount of consultation on the principles, the concepts, of that legislation. So, the in-principle stage of the debate could well have been carried on. Next sitting, no doubt, we will have a tremendous number of Bills to debate. The same with the sitting after that. I can see that there is going to be much more intense work for all of us. It was far better to get the in-principle stage of this guardianship legislation, on which basically we are all in agreement, out of the way. That is what I believe we should have done last night.
Conference Room
MS FOLLETT (Chief Minister and Treasurer) (4.18): I cannot let Mr Collaery's bizarre comments about the conference room on the fifth floor go unanswered. Mr Deputy Speaker, the fact of the matter is that the conference room on the fifth floor is used for a very wide variety of purposes. For Mr Collaery to say that it is exclusively for use by the Labor Party is simply untrue. The fact is that that conference room has been used for all sorts of government consultations. In fact, it has been used by Mr Humphries on one occasion for some media work.
The conference room has been used for meetings of a huge variety. The advisory committee is meeting in there this very afternoon. I and my colleagues have used that room for a range of meetings with community groups, with businesses and, indeed, with members of our own party. Mr Deputy Speaker, the Labor Party is a large community group and the branches of that party have every right to consult with their Government, as indeed does any other community group in the ACT, and they take advantage of it.
Unlike the Residents Rally and the Liberals, we actively encourage people to come in and see us. We are happy to see them on the fifth floor, and we have no intention of locking them out. We have no intention of obliging them to have secret passwords and to know the code to get through the security door, such as the Rally wishes to have installed, I believe. Mr Deputy Speaker, the consultation process is extremely important.
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