Page 372 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 23 February 1993
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MR HUMPHRIES (4.38): Madam Speaker, I seek leave to move a motion concerning the business of the Assembly.
MADAM SPEAKER: Is leave granted? Yes, proceed, Mr Humphries.
Mr Berry: You did not give notice. Let us know what you are doing.
MR HUMPHRIES: We anticipated not being able to get this far, Mr Berry. Madam Speaker, I move:
That the Assembly notes with concern the indecent haste with which the Government is bringing forward legislation for premature debate after its introduction.
Madam Speaker, I will not take a long time for this debate because I do not intend to be accused of simply talking for the sake of delaying the inevitable passage of a Bill. What I do want to do is to indicate very clearly, if that is not already perfectly plain to anybody who follows the debates in this place, that we are deeply unhappy with a government which brings forward legislation, major legislation, for passage into law mere days after those laws have been introduced into this Assembly and therefore into the public arena for the very first time.
Madam Speaker, there are six Bills before the Assembly this week which entered the public domain, which were introduced and tabled in this Assembly, at most seven days ago - I think in a couple of cases only five days ago. The public of the ACT and members of this Assembly have been required to digest and understand the contents of those Bills in only five days. It is poor law-making that we should be put in this position. No reason has been advanced by the Government as to why these Bills are being debated today. No reason has been put for the urgency with which the Government has approached this matter. No reason has been advanced as to why citizens of the ACT have no right to a fair period of time in which to peruse these initiatives and it is grossly unfair to expect that we should have to digest them in that short period.
Madam Speaker, I am addressing my comments here principally to Mr Moore, through you, rather than to the Government because I know that they have no interest in listening to these arguments. We have heard them all before. Mr Moore at least will recall that there were several occasions in the past when Bills of this kind were introduced and brought up for debate very quickly after that introduction. Mr Moore in the past has agreed on some occasions to delay those Bills, and I would ask Mr Moore to reconsider whether it is appropriate once again for him to do the same thing.
The fact of life is that these are extremely important Bills. Only today I heard a representative of the Australian Hotels Association express deep concern about the impact that one of these six Bills will have on his members as they go about their business of providing hospitality services to people in the ACT. Indeed, the Scrutiny of Bills Committee met only this morning and recommended that changes be made to some of these Bills. Madam Speaker, the pace of change, the process of making legislation good legislation, just is not there. We are letting ourselves and our electors down if we put these sorts of important initiatives in place with so little thought and so little proper scrutiny by the people who have the mandate to give that scrutiny, that is, the 17 members of this place. It is a disgrace that the Government attempts this kind of charade on the processes of democracy in this Territory.
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