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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 13 Hansard (4 December) . . Page.. 4410 ..

Mr Humphries: So what would you do, Andrew? What is your plan?

Mr De Domenico: How will you vote?

MR WHITECROSS: They are not very complicated propositions. Can the Attorney-General make up his mind as to whether he is in favour? Can the brains trust sitting around the table over there make up their minds? Even with the assistance of Mr Kaine, Mr Hird and your good self, Mr Speaker, the Government was not able to come to a decision on whether or not they support this legislation. What a hoot! Mr Humphries scuttled across the chamber to me and said, "How are you going to vote? We cannot make up our minds, so we will do what you want to do".

Mr Speaker, it seems to me that it behoves the Government, and it behoves a Minister in a government, to be able to show leadership on an issue like this. They should be able to come into this place and say, "This is where we stand on this matter. This is what we believe. This is how we are going to vote". Instead, Mr Speaker, Mr Humphries comes in and says, "This is a very interesting issue. On the one hand, you could vote for it. Here are a couple of reasons why you could vote for it. There is this one and this one and this one. On the other hand, there are some reasons why you could vote against it".

Mr Berry: It is his legal training.

MR WHITECROSS: Yes. Mr Berry says that it is his legal training. Mr Speaker, can you imagine how you would feel if you were a prisoner in the dock and Mr Humphries came in to represent you and said, "Well, Your Honour, on the one hand, you could let him off, and here are some reasons why. On the other hand, you might like to convict him."? Would you not be pleased? That is what Mr Humphries gave us this morning.

Mr Speaker, I do not think that Mr Humphries's lack of leadership on this issue should go unnoticed, but I am ever happy to help out. I thought I might give Mr Humphries a clue on how he might reflect on this in coming to his decision on which way to vote. When this matter was last debated, in April 1994, Mr Humphries had this to say:

I do not know what our party will do, -

that has not changed -

but I think we need to have the courage of our convictions before we take any steps of this kind in this place.

That has clarified the Liberal Party's position on the matter! He did go on to say that he did not believe that the Government, the Liberal Party or other parties in the place had actually sought the views of the people on it. He said:

I must indicate that at this stage we ought to accept that four-year terms are a matter for which this Assembly has no mandate.

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