Page 5514 - Week 17 - Wednesday, 4 December 1991
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Mr Connolly: I did ask whether anyone wanted to speak.
MR MOORE: I seek leave to make a very brief comment.
Leave granted.
MR MOORE: I thank members, and I accept that Mr Connolly did do that. The issue that he raised that I wanted to make a point on was the difficulty private members have in putting business together. What it really emphasises is the need for Parliamentary Counsel not to be the government's counsel, but to be the parliament's counsel. I believe that, in the Second Assembly, we should move to ensure that the Parliamentary Counsel is the counsel of the parliament, not the counsel of the Executive. Similarly, we should move to ensure that members of the parliament have access to officers of the Law Office in a direct way - obviously, in a controlled way - or something to that effect.
Mr Collaery: Non-policy advising.
Mr Jensen: They do not provide policy advice, Michael.
MR MOORE: Not for policy advice, but for - - -
Mr Collaery: Yes - non-policy advice.
MR MOORE: Yes, I mean non-policy advice. I accept that there have been a number of occasions when governments, both Alliance and Labor, have made the Parliamentary Counsel available to us. And I would be the first one to say that Mr Connolly himself gave priority to the Prostitution Bill - the very one that we debated today - in terms of going through Parliamentary Counsel. But I think that is something that the Second Assembly ought to look at, and it should set up a situation whereby Parliamentary Counsel is, as of right, available to members of the parliament.
MR STEFANIAK, by leave: I think a few people are getting a little bit off the track here, Mr Speaker. And I think a few very dedicated public servants might be somewhat unfairly maligned here. I point out to members - and I do so as a legal practitioner of 15 years' experience in the courts - that it is quite often that you see problems with legislation, government as well as private members' legislation. The Motor Traffic (Alcohol and Drugs) Ordinance in Canberra took about 10 years after it came into operation before it settled down into anything like some degree of workability. There were constant problems with that particular ordinance, and that is just one case in point. I have personally found probably about half a dozen instances in the ACT over the last 10 years where there have been problems with legislation and things have had to be redrafted - and I am not Robinson Crusoe in that regard.
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