Page 1702 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 18 May 1994
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Mr De Domenico: We have not voted yet.
MR LAMONT: No; you and the two previous speakers have said how outrageous it is that anybody has the audacity to amend the standing orders in this way. Yet just a minute ago you were defending the right of the standing orders to come up with a decision in this house. That is the utter hypocrisy of the position you have put. So there are two issues - not one of substance about the job of work, not one of substance about what needs to happen. It is about personality, it is about absolute hypocrisy, and they are the two bases upon which you all operate.
MR MOORE (5.06): Madam Speaker, the concern I have about the language in Mr De Domenico's speech is that he talked about the Chief Minister losing her other contact lens. It seemed to me that there was some difficulty there because, if there is only one, perhaps it should be a len.
What we have here is what I refer to as a beat-up, to say the least. We have a very simple matter. At the moment, when Mr Berry stands up to try to handle Government business, he seeks leave and he goes through the process. We have agreed to this by giving him leave for the last seven or eight sitting days. It is appropriate that we regularise that in a temporary standing order, to operate for the remainder of this Assembly. For the remainder of this Assembly we are just going to regularise something that is happening all the time by leave. There is nothing particularly difficult about that, Madam Speaker, and it is something that it seems to me is quite sensible.
Mr Humphries has indicated that he would like to move a minor amendment to Mr Berry's motion that would allow any member to present a paper during presentation of papers. That seems to me to be a very reasonable and very sensible thing to do. I assume that the name would still have to appear on the presentation of papers item and the process would need to be gone through. If a member has a particular paper that they want to present, it seems to me to be a quite appropriate thing to do and I do not have any difficulty with it. That is foreshadowing Mr Humphries's amendment, but he has circulated it. It seems to me that a great deal of the hype I hear this afternoon and a great deal of the angst I hear is nothing more than a simple beat-up.
MS SZUTY (5.08): Madam Speaker, I wish to speak very briefly to this issue. I fear that it was I who suggested that this procedure be adopted by the Government to clarify the role of the Manager of Government Business, Mr Berry, now that he is no longer a Minister. I think it was I who first suggested the procedure of regularising that fact in the standing orders. All we are doing by supporting this motion today is clarifying the role of Mr Berry as Manager of Government Business now that he is no longer a Minister. I do not have any particular difficulty with it. The responsibilities Mr Berry will have in this chamber are fairly straightforward and certainly are not of a terribly significant or earth-shattering nature, I believe.
The issue of the staffing allocation entitlement to Mr Berry is, I believe, a separate issue and a separate argument from the one being proposed here, which I understand will be taken up by the Administration and Procedures Committee at a date in the future. I am very comfortable with the motion as it has been proposed by Mr Berry, and I encourage the Assembly to support it.
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