Page 829 - Week 03 - Thursday, 14 April 1994
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opportunity to provide a preface. If I were the chair and dissented from some of the matters in a report or wanted to make some additional comments, you can expect that you would know what I was doing and that it would not be sprung on you. That is not the way I think we should operate in the context of the committee process.
The approach Mr Moore has taken on the issue of euthanasia has been pretty much of a stunt from the beginning. We have seen a properly developed policy, the timing of which was to be determined by the Government, or the Labor Party, plucked by Mr Moore and thrust into the headlines. It is no wonder that there was some fear and dismay out there about the issue. The hyperbole that was created about it was unnecessary. I am pleased to say that it will now get very careful debate in the community. Mr Moore, I think, has lost some brownie points in the community because of his behaviour on this score. It is his own judgment to exercise his political stand as he wishes. At the end of the day, I think you can expect that the issue of euthanasia will be treated with care by the Labor Party in accordance with its policies. It is not an issue that ought to have been dragged suddenly into the headlines just to make a point or two, and I think that was the case in respect of Mr Moore's actions.
I repeat, Madam Speaker, that I look forward to being involved in the committees, because there is some important work to do out there. We have to make sure that the credibility of the committee process is preserved, and I think that spiteful statements such as this one do not do much to look after that committee process.
MR MOORE: Madam Speaker, I wonder whether I could make an explanation under standing order 47.
Leave granted.
MR MOORE: Mr Berry talked about my plucking Labor Party policy and sticking it out into the community. I think members should understand that I was elected with a policy on euthanasia as well.
MR LAMONT (Minister for Urban Services, Minister for Housing and Community Services, Minister for Industrial Relations and Minister for Sport) (11.28), in reply: Madam Speaker, there were four issues raised by people who have spoken in the debate: The question of conventions in relation to the preface; additional comments of the chair of the committee; dissenting reports on a dissenting report; and what happens with the distribution of these comments. I will deal with each one of those in turn.
In relation to the convention of this chamber on the preface to reports of committees, as with the convention applying to the preface to reports in the Federal Parliament, it is my understanding that in general those preface comments by chairs of committees would in the first instance go to the process of how the inquiry was conducted. They would raise any salient single point that the chair believed was crucial in deliberation of the report. In general, they are regarded as being an opportunity for the chair to bring into a short form other comments made elsewhere and the recommendations in the report. That is not the case on this occasion.
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