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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 7 Hansard (20 June) . . Page.. 1985 ..

MRS CARNELL: I will have to take that question on notice. Surprising as it may seem, if you wanted an answer to a question in that depth and detail, obviously you should have put it on notice, Mr Berry.

MR BERRY: By leave, Mr Speaker, I might ask to add some further inquiries.

MR SPEAKER: It is a supplementary question. Yes. We have already ruled that, even if the original question is not answered, it is still possible to ask a supplementary question. You are now asking a supplementary question, without preamble.

MR BERRY: Indeed, Mr Speaker. I know that you will pay close attention, and at the end of the day you will notice that there is no preamble. Mrs Carnell, will you, before the Assembly rises today, table full details of every charge, invoice and allowance in connection with this weekend that was paid for by the Government?

MRS CARNELL: We are very happy to table the information about the weekend that happened last December, Mr Speaker. In fact, I think what is really showing here - - -

Ms McRae: When you take a question on notice you do not need to give an answer, Mr Speaker.

MRS CARNELL: No, but I can. As much as you can ask a supplementary question, I can give an answer. I am very happy to get that sort of information, Mr Speaker. I think it is very obvious that those opposite never did anything like that, because their performance in government showed very well that they did not ever learn to work with their public sector.

MR MOORE: Mr Speaker, my question is to Mr De Domenico. Actually, I am never quite sure whether I should ask this question of Mr De Domenico, Mr Humphries or Mrs Carnell, because I am not quite sure who deals with the issue of shop hours. If they want to pass it around among themselves, that is fine. Minister, I refer to the stunt you performed when you introduced this trading hours legislation, designed to pull the wool over the eyes of small business in Canberra. Is it not the case that your trading hours policies are a cover-up to allow the development and expansion of retail space in Tuggeranong and Manuka and the one that your Chief Minister launched in Woden? In reality, you are not providing any real solution to small business, because what you are actually doing is protecting the interests of big business.

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, I will take this question, since I have been responsible for this policy, to a large extent, up until now. The short answer is no. If anything, this policy could be described as the first real attempt by a government in the ACT to stand up for small business, after a long period in which small business had been neglected by successive governments in this place. Mr Speaker, it is obvious that, in running this line, people like Mr Moore and members of the Labor Party are doing the dirty work of large corporations - some of them multinational, most of them based outside the ACT -

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