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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 14 Hansard (12 December) . . Page.. 4850 ..

ADJOURNMENT

MR SPEAKER: Order! It being past 5.00 pm, I put the question:

That the Assembly do now adjourn.

Mr Humphries: I require the question to be put forthwith without debate.

Question resolved in the negative.

ADMITTANCE TO CHAMBER FLOOR

Debate resumed.

MR BERRY: Mr Speaker, there is a very clear situation here. We recognise the Government's need to receive technical advice in relation to debate on Bills in the detail stage, as is usually the case. It is a quite different matter for members to bring their own self-appointed staff, sometimes political staff, into this chamber to sit beside them and advise them on how they can attack the Government, or any other member of the non-Government benches for that matter, as I suspect will be the case today. Mr Speaker, Labor will be voting against the amendment which has been moved by Mr Moore. We will - - -

Mr Moore: Hypocrisy, Wayne! Straight hypocrisy!

MR BERRY: We are competent to deal with our own affairs.

Mr Moore: You are hypocritical.

MR BERRY: We do not deserve that sort of interjection, Mr Moore.

Mr Moore: You allowed it in the last Assembly, with not even a member of staff.

MR BERRY: We do not deserve that sort of interjection either, Mr Moore.

Mr Moore: Yes, you do.

MR BERRY: Mr Moore, if you are not able to handle a few amendments that you have put together, then perhaps you should have considered this before you ran for election to this place. The same applies in respect of the Greens. The fact is that your staff are employed to assist you, but they are not employed to sit in this place. That is our view of the world in respect of this. The Westminster system is very clear. I repeat, at the risk of being called to order for tedious repetition, that the Government is entitled to technical advice and should get it, as it always has, because during the course of debate there are often technical issues raised which may need to be dealt with immediately, otherwise it might lead to an adjournment of the proceedings. The same could apply in respect of Independent members and Greens. If they were not able to cope with a particular position they could move for an adjournment and cop the outcome.

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