Page 697 - Week 03 - Thursday, 21 May 1992
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MR LAMONT: The proposition that government business - - -
Mr Humphries: You have already spoken.
MR LAMONT: I am sorry; I still have a considerable amount of time before I conclude. If you wish to exercise the gag we cannot prevent you, Mr Humphries; but I am - - -
Mr Humphries: I am sorry; I thought you had finished.
MR LAMONT: You are trying to get out from under. You use the gag and now you try to get out from under. My goodness!
Mr Humphries: You sat down.
MR LAMONT: Because there were interjections. It is an appropriate response. We have threatened at some stage to educate the Opposition. I see that it is going to be a harder task than we first thought.
Madam Speaker, there is the ability to extend the sittings in the mornings beyond 12.30. It has been usual for the Assembly to rise at that time; but, if there is any concern about particular Bills which may require determination on a particular day, on a particular Thursday, then that provision is there and it should be used. There is nothing sacrosanct about the Assembly rising at 12.30.
The efficient conduct of the business of this Assembly and this Government is the reason why this proposition is coming before the Assembly. It is good business practice. I would have presumed that at least the Opposition would give credence to that. Most certainly, their representative on the Administration and Procedures Committee gave due recognition to that fact when he supported this proposition.
Mr Kaine: He has been known on very rare occasions to be wrong.
MR LAMONT: If you wish to call into question the perspicacity of your honourable colleague, then that is up to you.
Mr Kaine: No, I am just saying that he has been known on very rare occasions to be wrong, and this might be one of those occasions.
MR LAMONT: You obviously deal with him in your party room better than we do. What else can we say?
I also wish to refer briefly to the issues that it is proposed be discussed and debated in this period to become known as Assembly business. Mr Cornwell has gone through those, drawing his own conclusions, and I think that it is only appropriate that in conclusion I do similarly.
I refer first to a notice of motion or order of the day relating to the establishment or the membership of an Assembly committee, or the referral of a matter to an Assembly committee. I believe that it is appropriate that the Assembly know that there is a time when such matters will be debated. Not all of us are able to be in the chamber for every single minute of every single day, although I know
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