Page 3735 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 9 December 1992
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Mr Humphries outlined that the Chief Minister had a failure rate of 67 per cent, Mr Berry 78 per cent, Mr Wood 67 per cent, and Mr Connolly 78 per cent. This brought it out to an average failure rate of 72.5 per cent. Subsequently, the Chief Minister told us that Mr Humphries's figures were quite wrong; that, instead of 30 Bills being passed by the end of this budget sitting, there were going to be 34 passed. This required me to reconstruct the percentage, and I have to say that the Government's failure rate has improved. It is no longer 72.5 per cent; it has fallen to 71.5 per cent. In other words, it has a success strike rate of 28.5 per cent. That would certainly get you thrown out of the Australian XI, and I would suggest that it would even get you thrown out of the cricket team that Mr De Domenico coaches on Saturday mornings down in Tuggeranong. They would not accept that; yet the community is expected to accept this self-governing Territory's Government - - -
Mr Lamont: I raise a point of order, Madam Speaker. I was wondering whether the speakers in staff and members' offices have been fixed this afternoon. If they have, I would ask that you ring the bells or do something else to wake them up, so that they can listen to this.
MADAM SPEAKER: Thank you for your advice. Please continue, Mr Cornwell.
MR CORNWELL: Thank you, Madam Speaker. The problem is that when you examine this failure rate, or even the success rate, it is pretty appalling. If you look at the real issues, the reformist legislation Mr Connolly spoke about, the figures are even worse. In spite of the vast proportion of legislation listed that was actually in preparation, which the Chief Minister spoke of, what do we find? Most of this legislation that is coming forward, or at least is in preparation, is amendments to existing legislation. Only two of 12 pieces of first, second and third priority legislation for the Chief Minister are new pieces of legislation; only eight of Mr Berry's 27 are new pieces of legislation; only five of Mr Wood's 15 are new pieces of legislation; and only 21 of Mr Connolly's 68 are new pieces of legislation.
I am not suggesting for a moment that the amendments are not important. I am not suggesting that they are not in some cases complicated. I am suggesting that they are not as time consuming as the creation of new legislation, and I do not believe that any legislative draftsman would question what I am saying. Obviously, if you are creating legislation from nothing, it is going to take you longer than simply putting through amendments. This means that the Government's record is even worse than we imagined, and this is in spite of Mr Berry's statement, which has been quoted by the Chief Minister, on the program for the budget sitting:
Members should be aware that the program is primarily an indication of the Government's legislative agenda.
I have no problem there. Mr Berry continued:
By its nature the program must be flexible -
indeed it must -
so as to accommodate emerging issues. Similarly, the priority classification of proposals may also be subject to change.
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