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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 8 Hansard (25 June) . . Page.. 2093 ..

Mr Kaine: I take a point of order, Mr Speaker. Whether or not the Ministry submits itself to questioning is irrelevant to the suspension of standing orders that Mr Berry is seeking. I again remind you that he is out of order.

MR SPEAKER: I uphold the point of order.

MR MOORE (3.59): Mr Speaker, speaking to the motion for the suspension of standing orders, I think it would provide us with the opportunity to hold this Minister accountable. What happened in question time is that members missed the ability, time after time, to hold a Minister accountable for the legislation for which he is clearly responsible. Order of the day No. 13 clearly identifies who is responsible, Mr Speaker. I think members should read it carefully. It says:

Trading Hours Bill 1996: (Minister for Business, Employment and Tourism) ...

That Minister, Mr Speaker, has not been held accountable through question time. He has avoided the questions asked. He has been protected by the Chief Minister, and he has been protected by Mr Humphries. He has not put his head up to answer any substantive questions on the legislation that he has in front of him. The suspension of standing orders would give us the opportunity to debate whether he should be allowed to keep his legislation on the notice paper when he is not prepared to take questions on it.

MR KAINE (4.00): I oppose the motion to suspend standing orders. The matter before the house during question time was not the legislation that is the subject of this motion. Who answered questions on what matter during question time is totally irrelevant to the fact that this Bill is on the agenda and will come up for debate in due course. I suspect that Mr Berry wants to get it off the agenda, not because he has any question about who answers questions in connection with it, but because he wants to get it off the agenda full stop.

Mr Moore: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. Mr Kaine took point of order after point of order that Mr Berry should stick to the motion to suspend standing orders, and now he is drifting away from it himself.

MR SPEAKER: I uphold the point of order, Mr Kaine.

MR KAINE: If I listen to Mr Berry enough it rubs off and I do digress a bit. The fact is, Mr Speaker, that Mr Berry has made no case for suspending the standing orders, and his reference to this piece of legislation has nothing whatsoever to do with what happened during question time. The two matters are totally unrelated. I do not support his motion

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