Page 4452 - Week 15 - Tuesday, 19 November 1991
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She went on to say a number of other things. She said, indeed, that she had picked up the work done by the former Government, in particular, "invaluable contributions made by the community during the consultation process", and that she had revised - and I stress this - "the draft legislation to bring it more into line with Labor policy". She said:
The current Bill directly reflects Labor's commitment to social justice and the promotion of equality of opportunity in the ACT.
A morning or two later, the Chief Minister was interviewed on Matt Abraham's ABC Morning Show and, among other things, Mr Abraham asked her:
... do you feel you should have given some credit to Mr Collaery for the work he did on this Bill while Attorney-General in the Alliance Government?
Ms Follett replied:
It's difficult to see why, Matthew. Back in 1989, I actually prepared a discussion paper on anti-discrimination and put that out just before we lost office. And in the ensuing 18 months when Mr Collaery had responsibility, nothing much happened.
Ms Follett: Hear, hear!
MR COLLAERY: We will see whether you are still saying that in a couple of minutes, Ms Follett. She said:
It's been left until Labor got back into government just recently to actually put the Bill on the table, so I don't believe that Mr Collaery can claim it as his own because he had a very long period in which to take some action and, as far as I am aware, that just didn't happen.
Mr Abraham went on to ask Ms Follett to comment as to whether the draft Bill now before the house was, apart from several exceptions and minor technical points, exactly the same Bill that was left for Ms Follett when she resumed office. This is a serious matter, because there may be a substantive motion; so Mr Berry might care to listen. Ms Follett's response was:
I introduced a draft Bill myself in the Assembly while we were in opposition.
That is what Ms Follett said. But Mr Abraham was on top of that, and he said:
But that didn't have much relation to this current Bill, did it?
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