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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 10 Hansard (5 September) . . Page.. 3190 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

It is very important for people to understand that an urgent Bill is not just a Bill that we are going to finish today. An urgent Bill is a Bill that limits the rights of members in this Assembly to speak on, argue against or deal with the full range of issues associated with the Bill. I hope my Green colleagues are listening to this. Ms Tucker is not even here. Ms Horodny is, I am pleased to say. I hope she is listening to this. I hope Mr Osborne is listening as well. The declaration of urgency limits the rights of members to have a full discussion on this particular legislation. As I recall, we have not had an urgent Bill in this Third Assembly.

Mrs Carnell: We did in the Second Assembly, and you supported it.

MR MOORE: We did in the Second Assembly, yes. We have had a precedent, but you have to understand that an urgent Bill limits the amount of time that members have to discuss the legislation. This is consistent with the way the Liberals operate. The Liberals say, "We want to have as broad a community consultation as possible. We want to have as much discussion as we possibly can, because we are the open Government. We are the Government that is prepared to stand up and be part of the community. We are the Government that does all these things". When it comes to crunch time, half-baked policy is rushed through. There was hardly any community consultation on the specific policy of closing down half of our major shops in the evenings.

Mrs Carnell: Half?

MR MOORE: About half - less than half. They are closing the shops in the major town centres in the evenings, supposedly to save small retailers in suburban centres. Of course, that is absolute nonsense. Then, in a half-baked way, they refer it to the Planning and Environment Committee and say, "But you cannot consider retail space, because we are going to continue with retail space".

There is a question to be asked of this Minister and this Government about how many deals have been done. Have any deals been done or understandings reached between you and Woolworths about major shopping centres such as Manuka? Mr Humphries or Mrs Carnell ought to answer that on behalf of their Government. Has an understanding been created in terms of Woolies and the particular site in Manuka which they would love to have but which should be for open tender? I have raised that issue so that you can answer it straightaway.

Mr Humphries: The answer is no.

MR MOORE: I will put that straight on the record. I heard Mr Humphries interject "No". But these issues are raised and I think it is worth making sure that they are dealt with. The whole idea of bringing on an urgent debate and limiting members' opportunities to debate this issue is appalling. It really will limit debate to a significant extent, unless the Minister gives a very broad range of times for this Bill. We have not had an indication yet, in a cooperative way of working, as to the times the Minister is going to set for this urgent Bill. Apparently, other members have but I have not. That is great!

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