Page 376 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 23 February 1993
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MADAM SPEAKER: Order!
Mr Humphries: There were good reasons for it.
MADAM SPEAKER: Order!
MR CONNOLLY: Madam Speaker, Mr Humphries is agitated but the fact remains; if you look at Hansard for the latter months of 1990 it is there for anyone to see. There were Bills introduced on a Tuesday and passed on a Thursday. A raft of Bills were introduced one week and passed the next week - some on quite substantial matters, like the abolition of the Gaming and Liquor Authority and the Territory Owned Corporations Bill. It is a standby for oppositions when they have nothing to say - fast, fast, slow, slow. Let us get on, Madam Speaker, with the substance of the matters. To the extent that Mr Humphries says that the public can get a little cynical about proceedings in this place, it is probably because they expect their elected members to get on with the substance of matters before the Assembly, to get on with the substance of good law and good administration for this Canberra community, and not muck around with these fairly shallow debating points - "You are going too fast; you are going too slow".
MR DE DOMENICO (4.53): Madam Speaker, I am going to be very brief. Here is Mr Connolly's rhetoric once again. He mentioned "good legislation". Madam Speaker, we have just been handed a sheet of paper and we have counted 46 changes that are to be made.
Mr Kaine: That is just the consequential amendments Bill.
MR DE DOMENICO: That is just the consequential amendments Bill, as Mr Kaine quite rightly says.
Mr Lamont: One change.
MR DE DOMENICO: "One change", says Mr Lamont.
Mr Humphries: One change over four pages.
MR DE DOMENICO: One change, 46 times. This is how perfect this Bill is.
Mr Lamont: Thank you, and remember that it is Colquhoun.
MR DE DOMENICO: No, it is Lamont and this is monstrous. As my colleague Mr Humphries said, shame on people opposite in this house, and shame basically on Mr Moore. If we talk about quick, quick, slow, slow, and people changing their minds, Mr Moore, not too long ago, would have been voting with us on this side and saying, "Oh, listen, I have not had enough time to look at this legislation, so I will vote for you". What has happened today is that the tail has split. The tail is still wagging the dog, but it has split. I ask the question through you, Madam Speaker: Why has the tail split? Why has Mr Moore, once again, changed his mind? What makes Mr Moore think, or the Government think, that this Bill is so urgent? This Bill is completely changing the way the Health Department is run in this Territory and it is giving all the responsibility for running the Health Department to Mr Berry.
Mr Kaine: He has screwed it up already.
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