Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

None . . Page.. 203 ..

Mr Berry: And the others.

MR HUMPHRIES: And others as well, yes. There was a very large attendance on that evening. A few weeks later, there was a move, on the Wednesday morning sitting, to bring that Bill forward for debate. Mr Berry, I am sure, well recalls that particular debate.

MR SPEAKER: Order! It being 11.34 am, Mr Humphries, the time for precedence of Assembly business has expired.

Motion (by Mr Berry) agreed to:

That the time allotted to Assembly business be extended by 30 minutes.

MR HUMPHRIES: I thank Mr Berry. Mr Speaker, on that Wednesday morning, the same number of people appeared in the gallery. The same people, who were keen to hear that debate resolved, came to the Assembly on a Wednesday morning. I would suggest, with respect, that it had nothing to do with the Tuesday night sitting. That was an issue that members of the community wanted to know about, and they turned up to hear it. But it has to be said that those sorts of occasions - Tuesday nights with large attendances - were very rare. They were extremely rare. The number of times when members have come into this place on a Tuesday night, after a three-hour adjournment for dinner, have looked across at the gallery and have seen nobody there other than government officials and a few personal staff members greatly outweighs the number of nights when people were actually present in the gallery. Ms McRae might recall a few occasions when people that she knew passed through the place to have a look. That is fine. I am sure that those sorts of people did indeed turn up. I certainly tried to encourage people to come to those sittings. But, for the most part, it did not excite that interest. Mr Speaker, in the Federal Parliament at times other than question time it is hard to find occasions when the galleries are full.

Ms McRae: Because the constituents all live elsewhere.

MR HUMPHRIES: It may be the case that there is a difference in the constituency base. It may be the fact that the same phenomenon occurs everywhere, that - regrettably, perhaps - ordinary people generally find proceedings in parliament fairly boring. On occasions, I do not blame them for that, to be quite frank. They can be very boring.

Mr Kaine: Did you see the bored looks on the rent-a-crowd on Tuesday night?

MR HUMPHRIES: Indeed. Mr Speaker, I have to say that I do not think it is particularly convincing to say that, if we can drum up people for Tuesday night, as we did on Tuesday night of this week, by Mr Berry's own admission, that somehow proves that Tuesday nights are a great success.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .