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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 14 Hansard (11 December) . . Page.. 4681 ..

Mr Kaine: Do you want to do away with question time on Wednesdays, too? That will give you another hour.

MR MOORE: Mr Kaine, allow me to invite you in particular and other members of the Government backbench to contribute further to private members business, because I would be delighted to do what I can in the Administration and Procedure Committee to ensure that you have the opportunity to share in that private members business. I think it is an opportunity that somebody of your talent and experience would find very useful.

Mr Speaker, I foreshadow that I will be moving an amendment to Ms Tucker's motion, accepting the invitation that Mr Humphries put that, if that is the way we feel about this, then it ought to be a permanent standing order. By making it a permanent standing order, of course, the onus changes. If somebody does not like it then it is up to the Government in the next Assembly to say, "We do not like it; therefore, we will move to change it". I think that is an important onus. If people are genuine about the appropriateness of the Opposition and the crossbenchers being able to operate in an Assembly where there is a minority government, then it is also appropriate that that carry through as a permanent standing order. I think it was a good invitation. At this moment I am having the appropriate amendment drawn up. I would not be surprised if it is ready to be circulated in a few moments.

Mr Speaker, I think that what we have seen in this Assembly is a growth in the amount of work that the crossbenchers and the Opposition do in order to enhance the wellbeing of Canberra, in order to enhance the society. The Government has a series of options that they can deal with on this issue. If they feel there is not enough time for their business, then they can do, first of all, what has already been done within the last six months, within this trial period, and that is request that Executive business take precedence of private members business on a Wednesday afternoon or even on a Wednesday morning, for that matter. I think that is a quite reasonable request that sometimes will be recognised as such.

But they have a series of other options as well. Firstly, sittings can be extended into the evening. Secondly, more sitting days can be put into our calendar so that we can be sure that we have an appropriate amount of private members business. It is fair to say that private members also have an option to use the matter of public importance debate. Of course, that is also open to the Government and to Government members, but it has been largely used as a tool by private members.

Mr Humphries: Lately it has not.

MR MOORE: Indeed. Mr Humphries interjects, "Lately it has not". I was about to say that one of the reasons that I believe it has not been used as much by private members in the last little while is that it has no conclusion. A matter of public importance debate is used, I think, in a much more effective way where it is used to raise issues on which members want to sound out ideas. I think that is a very effective way to use it. What is clear to members now is that we can be very effective in implementing policy through the use of private members business in this house.

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