Page 1082 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 23 June 1992
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I think it is important, first of all, to distinguish between the types of Bills that we are dealing with. Secondly, it is also important to deal with the government business program. It is imperative for us to recall that the Liberal Party, in particular, spent some time in our last sitting session asking the government members where was their business, when were they going to do some real business, when were they going to deal with some legislation? When I look back through the Bills list, when I look at the legislation that they have tabled and that we have passed, and then the lag between tabling and passage that is available to us, we simply cannot have it both ways. You cannot have the Government bringing on all these Bills and debating them and also have a time lag. You cannot fulfil all of those things at the beginning of an Assembly. However, it is important that this issue is raised because it is the ideal that we are aiming for.
It seems to me, in dealing with it, that we have to deal with three types of Bills: Firstly, machinery Bills; secondly, urgent Bills; and then, thirdly, what I will call normal Bills. For example, the Supply Bill, a machinery Bill, is going to come in. It can be tabled. Quite clearly, it will be nothing more than exactly what is set out. It is to provide supply until the time that the budget is passed. It is appropriate that it be debated, and it is appropriate that the budget issues be raised as part of the debate on the Supply Bill. But there is no particular need for the Supply Bill, as such, to sit on the table for 60 days. That would be quite inappropriate. There are other types of machinery Bills that fit into that category. I will be interested to see this afternoon, when Ms Follett tables the Rates and Land Tax (Amendment) Bill, whether that also fits into that category - a Bill that she is going to suggest should be dealt with urgently.
That brings me to the second category of Bills - Bills that need to be dealt with urgently. I think they, in turn, fit into two categories. There are those that are of immediate need and are declared, under standing order 192, to be urgent Bills and therefore are dealt with immediately. There are times when we must be able to do that and when it is appropriate for us to do that. There are Bills that also provide some urgency. I think that one good example of Bills that require some urgency in our dealing with them is the essential services guarantee legislation which Mr Connolly introduced last week and which we will debate later this week. We are in the middle of winter and it is appropriate for us to provide, for people who are in an awkward position, the right to be able to keep warm and to be able to keep their families warm. I think that that is a matter of some urgency and such a Bill ought not necessarily be on the table for 60 days. At the same time we should also recognise that in that instance the Law Reform Committee in fact put out a draft Bill, and that draft Bill basically was adopted by the Government quite some time ago. I have had it for most of this year anyway. Therefore, that has been available to us to scrutinise.
I come now to the third category of Bills, the normal Bills that really ought be on the table for 60 days. I think that that should be the normal time. Some people have raised in particular today the Termination of Pregnancy (Repeal) Bill and I would like to distinguish that Bill from the amendment that Mr Lamont has raised in respect of circuses. In dealing in politics for the last three or four years I have never come across such an unchristian, nasty movement as the Right to Life movement. They came and visited us to lobby for their point of view close to three months ago. It is certainly over two months ago. Therefore I will not support any adjournment of the Termination of Pregnancy (Repeal) Bill this evening.
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