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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 7 Hansard (20 June) . . Page.. 2007 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

Government have pretended that they are doing something about small business, when the truth is that they are trying to avoid dealing with the fundamental issue, and the fundamental issue is about retail space. Mr Speaker, before I finish, I seek leave to table the document that I quoted from.

Leave granted.

MR HUMPHRIES (Attorney-General) (3.54), in reply: Mr Speaker, to close the debate, and it has been a debate, let me say, first of all, that Mr Moore is quite right to suggest that there has been a change of view by both Mr De Domenico and Mrs Carnell, although in the case of Mr De Domenico, at least, as a representative of an organisation rather than as an individual, he was expected to represent the views of his members. It may or may not be the case that you always present your own personal point of view at the same time as presenting the views of your members, but let us assume that that is the case.

Mr Moore: He can even change his mind.

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr De Domenico makes no bones of the fact that he has changed his mind, as has Mrs Carnell. Mr Speaker, both of those Ministers made it very clear at an early stage of Cabinet deliberations that they had previously argued for unrestricted trading hours, and they both indicated that they had a change of mind as a result of the end product that the Government agreed to through this process. I might say, Mr Speaker, that Mr Moore is not in a very good position to be pointing the finger on this subject, because Mr Moore himself has had a change of heart about trading hours, and over a shorter period of time than Mrs Carnell and Mr De Domenico.

Mr Moore: No, I have not.

MR HUMPHRIES: Yes, you have. I ask Mr Moore to go back and have a look at the question of liquor trading hours as recommended in the report of, I think, the Social Policy Committee of which he was a member. He endorsed a unanimous report, back in about 1992, when it was recommended that there should be restrictions on the trading hours of licensed premises.

Mr Moore: Who supported your trial?

MR HUMPHRIES: I know that it is embarrassing. I am sorry; I have to bring these facts to the fore. It is all right. There is almost nobody listening. There is just the ABC. They will not tell anybody. Their lips are sealed, I can tell. Mr Moore said, back in 1992, as I recall, "We cannot allow people to trade endlessly all through the night because it is damaging the market".

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