Page 2728 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 20 October 1992
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Mr Humphries: Madam Speaker, may I address you on the point of order?
MADAM SPEAKER: Yes, Mr Humphries, you may.
Mr Humphries: Madam Speaker, this question is not hypothetical. It is a question of the Government's policy with respect to the administration of the provisions in that Bill. Madam Speaker, the Assembly has not passed the Bill; that is true. It may not pass the Bill, or not pass the Bill in the present form, I would suggest, on the strength of the answer the Chief Minister gives to questions like this. The Assembly has no power to ask such questions of the Chief Minister except in question time, and we have a right to know how the Government proposes to administer legislation of this kind before, not after, it is passed by the Assembly.
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Humphries, I have indulged you on a further point of order because it is a borderline issue in my head. I might speak to the Clerk for a moment, if you would permit me a little time.
Members, it is very, very borderline. I do not see it as being actually hypothetical, because in time an electoral commissioner will be appointed. The element that comes under discussion then is clause 20 of the Bill to be debated, which says:
The Executive may, by instrument, appoint a person to be the Electoral Commissioner.
My problem with your question, Mr Humphries, is that in the debate of this Bill this area may well be discussed and may well be amended or changed. We have no way of knowing that. So, you see my problem: If I allow the question it means that we are, in a sense, anticipating an outcome of a Bill which is not yet passed. I would like to leave it for the moment, and I will give you the call again. Mr Humphries, I am not determining that you are not to ask the question at all. I will go on with the next question. Perhaps you would like to consider that and try again, and rephrase the question in that light.
Mr Moore: Madam Speaker, may I address the point of order?
MADAM SPEAKER: If you have a point of order, yes.
Mr Moore: I address that point of order, Madam Speaker. Standing orders 114 and 116, particularly 116, refer to a member not being a Minister answering a question relating to any Bill. What worries me is that we may have a ruling - we had a similar ruling some time earlier - that tends to indicate that there will be no questions relating to Bills. I think it is quite clear from the standing orders that questions relating to Bills are quite in order.
MADAM SPEAKER: Thank you, Mr Moore, for that advice. The problem is that we also have a standing order that says that we may not anticipate government business, and in this case it may well anticipate debate that we are not sure of. This is not a Bill that has come through. That is, in part, my dilemma in being able to give a clear-cut ruling. Having said all that, the Chief Minister may well wish to answer the question, and I will give her the floor.
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