Page 1093 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 23 June 1992
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Mr Connolly: Because you insisted that we not take decisions.
MR KAINE: You and Mr Berry can make your snide remarks such as, "Haven't you enough work?". Whether the members on this side of the chamber have enough work is not the question. The question is, "Are you serving the interests of the community out there?". They are the people who elected you. They are the people who elected us, and I try to do the right thing by them. I know that the Labor Party does not care. I ask the question: With whom did you consult in the ACT on this issue?
Mr Connolly: You signed up for it. You signed the AFIC agreement as Chief Minister.
MR KAINE: I may have done, but that was only an agreement in principle. Rosemary Follett, as Chief Minister, last November agreed to adopt a uniform law.
Mr De Domenico: When did she do it? Did you say "last week"?
MR KAINE: Last November. It is very interesting, because she does claim the credit for it. She does not say, in her tabling speech, that the previous Chief Minister was any part of this deal. No, this was the Labor Party. When we start chucking some rocks at you because of your absolutely appalling performance, you start remembering that I had a hand in this. Madam Speaker, I did not have a hand in producing this legislation. I did not have a hand in producing also a series of regulations. This is just the Bills. A bunch of regulations are called up by this legislation also. Where are they?
Mr Berry: What were you doing all weekend?
MR KAINE: That is an interesting question. I am not going to answer it. To be serious, the Government is asking us to take a great deal on faith on this issue. I do not know whether I should. I do not know whether I ought to accept that this Government is a government of such integrity that there is nothing in this mass of legislation, that I have not had time to fully comprehend, that I should object to. There is nothing here that suggests that the people of the ACT know about this. There is nothing that even says that the financial institutions of the ACT know about this and what the consequences are for them. Have they had an opportunity to analyse this and make their comments to the Government - that they find some aspects of this legislation reasonable or unreasonable? I do not know; the Government has not told me.
I suggest to the Chief Minister that when she sums up at the end of this debate she might choose to give us a little more information about the background and about the ramifications of this legislation, not only for the financial institutions which will be profoundly affected by it but also for the people whose money is invested in these financial institutions. There must be thousands of them. What do they know about this? The answer, I suggest, is absolutely nothing. I do not think that is good enough. If the Government committed itself last November to putting uniform legislation in place by 1 July, it is a little too late, four sitting days before we go into recess, to ask this Assembly and the community to analyse, consider and adopt it. I think that is just asking too much. I will be interested in the Chief Minister's response on these issues.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .