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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 2 Hansard (29 February) . . Page.. 476 ..

MR KAINE (continuing):

I think we need to be careful. If Mr Moore wants to see certain information in this document, then it might be appropriate for certain information to be disclosed. I am sure that, if he had had a discussion with the Chief Minister off the floor of this place, they could have agreed on which information should be released and which would not, and I am sure that Mr Moore would agree that there is some of it that should not be. But to enter into a debate here and now on such a broad-ranging moral, ethical and legal issue, and to break new ground by this Assembly asserting, which is what could be the result, that any document in the hands of the Government must be disclosed publicly, I think, is dangerous. It would not be tenable for any government, including the present Opposition, if and when they ever get to be the government again. They need to be very careful about establishing new standards that they themselves could not live with if they were returned to government.

I just sound the warning. I think Mr Moore is well aware of the importance of what I am saying, and I hope that he will come to another course of action to get the information he thinks is desirable to be made known to him in the public interest, rather than a sledge-hammer motion like this, which people will be inclined to vote for, not on the merits of the case but because there is a political point to be made. Everybody then has to live with the consequences, not just on this issue, because this will establish a precedent. I say to members: Be careful.

MR HUMPHRIES (Attorney-General) (12.13): Mr Speaker, I think an observer in the gallery, if there was one, listening to the debate throughout this morning - - -

MR SPEAKER: You will need leave to speak again, Mr Humphries.

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, I withdrew the amendment I was about to speak to, so I would argue that I have not spoken in this debate.

Mr Moore: You need to have leave, Gary. Just seek leave.

MR HUMPHRIES: If you think I need leave, Mr Speaker, fine, I will seek it; but I have not spoken already on this motion. If you think I need it, I will ask for it.

Leave granted.

MR HUMPHRIES: I think anyone sitting in the gallery during this debate, if there was someone sitting there this morning, could be forgiven for being mightily confused. This morning we had a debate about a Public Accounts Committee report on access to Cabinet and other deliberative documents the property of previous governments.

Mr Moore: But this is not that.

MR HUMPHRIES: No. The argument being put at that stage by the Leader of the Opposition was that governments are entitled to have documents that were prepared at their behest, that were deliberative documents in their control, kept secret unless the government that created them consented to their release. That was her argument. It was a more embracing argument; it embraced many more documents than this Government happens to believe ought to be the case, but that was her argument.

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