Page 5307 - Week 16 - Thursday, 28 November 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
MR HUMPHRIES (6.33): Mr Speaker, I wish to ask a question of the Chief Minister. I know that she can speak on any number of occasions on this Bill; so there is no question of missing out on opportunities to speak. I would ask her a question. It is unclear to me what convention the Chief Minister adheres to with respect to appointments. Can the Chief Minister indicate whether she sees a cut-off date beyond which appointments will not be made by the Government, because of its interim character, being the rising of this Assembly, the issuing of writs - if there are such things - for the election, the day of the election, or the day of the new Assembly being sworn in? Can the Chief Minister please indicate which of those she sees as the appropriate date?
MS FOLLETT (Chief Minister and Treasurer) (6.33): Mr Speaker, I think that any government appointment that is made at any time is open to scrutiny; but an appointment made within 11 weeks of an election is open to perhaps more scrutiny than at most other times, and this appointment, if we make an appointment, would be open to such scrutiny. That is the case, and it would be, of course, open to scrutiny in this Assembly, open to scrutiny at the election. If it were felt by members that any appointment I had made was of such an outrageous nature as to become an issue for the public, then obviously I am vulnerable in a pre-election period. That seems to me to be commonsense.
Mr Humphries has asked a particular question, and the fact is that there are no specified cut-off dates. That is the fact, unfortunately.
Mr Collaery: But there had better be one. Well, you are going to find another law introduced in three weeks.
MR SPEAKER: Order, Mr Collaery, please!
MS FOLLETT: Mr Speaker, I do not know why it is that all members opposite impute to me the very worst possible motives in this. I simply find it incomprehensible. It seems to me that we have all agreed that this is probably the best piece of legislation that has gone through this Assembly; that it is indeed a very significant piece of legislation; a piece of legislation that is designed to protect the rights of all citizens in the ACT, to increase their protections and to allow them to exercise rights which they otherwise would not have had. I really think, in the light of what I would regard as the Assembly's pride in this piece of legislation, that to be having a squabble at this point over one aspect of it is very unfortunate.
I can say again, Mr Speaker, as I have said before, that I will consult other members if that is their wish. I am, obviously, open to scrutiny in everything that I do now - perhaps more so because we are in a pre-election period - and it would be foolhardy indeed for me to blunder. I have not done so in the past and I will not do so on this occasion. I really do not see, Mr Speaker, that I have given cause for the concerns being expressed by members
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .