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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 11 Hansard (26 September) . . Page.. 3501 ..

MR MOORE: I seek leave to move to suspend the standing and temporary orders to allow those members who wish to speak in the adjournment debate to do so.

Leave granted.

MR MOORE: I move:

That so much of the standing and temporary orders be suspended as would prevent all members wishing to speak in the adjournment debate from so doing.

Question resolved in the affirmative, with the concurrence of an absolute majority.

Debate resumed.

MR OSBORNE (4.57): Thank you, Mr Moore. Mr Speaker, I am aware that a couple of weeks ago we advertised in the Canberra Times for a new magistrate for the ACT. I want to read to the Assembly the transcript of a sentence imposed in the Federal District Court of the Territory of New Mexico in 1881 upon a defendant convicted of murder. I hope that the new magistrate adopts the same approach as this judge. I will be very brief, Mr Speaker. The sentence was as follows:

Jose Manuel Miguel Xaviar Gonzales, in a few short weeks it will be spring. The snows of winter will flow away, the ice will vanish and the air will become soft and balmy. In short, Jose Manuel Miguel Xaviar Gonzales, the annual miracle of the years will awaken and come to pass; but you won't be there.

The rivulet will run its roaring course to the sea, the timid desert flowers will put forth their tender shoots, the glorious valleys of this imperial domain will blossom as the rose. Still, you won't be there to see it.

From every tree top some wild woods songster will carol his mating song, butterflies will sport in the sunshine, the busy bee will hum happily as it pursues its accustomed vocation. The genteel breeze will tease the tassels of the wild grasses, and all nature, Jose Manuel Miguel Xaviar Gonzales, will be glad, but you - you won't be here to enjoy it, because, I command the sheriff or some other officers of the county to lead you out to some remote spot, swing you by the neck from a knotting bough of some sturdy oak, and let you hang until you are dead.

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