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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 1 Hansard (18 February) . . Page.. 74 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

Mr Speaker, the motion essentially allows for the recording with sound by a particular television network - which I take it will then share the taped proceedings with other television networks - of the presentation of the Medical Treatment (Amendment) Bill tomorrow by Mr Moore, and then the subsequent debate, which I gather is supported by some members, to take place on Wednesday, 26 February. Mr Speaker, the permission to broadcast is qualified in paragraph (2) by a number of conditions, and also by paragraph (3).

Mr Speaker, it is the Government's view that there ought to be a greater capacity for members of the public to see and hear what elected members of their parliament are doing on the floor of the chamber. The broadcasting of the debate on what will, I think, be a matter of some considerable interest by television networks over the next week or so accords with that view. Let me put on record the Government's view about this matter. The Government views this as something of an experiment and will watch with great interest to see how the exercise works out in practice. Secondly, it views the process as being a necessary one on a number of future occasions, but the way in which those occasions are judged and apportioned needs to be carefully thought through.

Mr Moore: Let us get the legislation done quickly.

MR HUMPHRIES: The legislation may be necessary to properly protect the proceedings. Alternatively, some quicker reaction might be appropriate. I have been frustrated personally to see the long time it has taken to get parliamentary broadcasting legislation up before this place, and I hope that this will be a spur to our being able to make that happen sooner. Mr Speaker, I hope that this will contribute both to better access by the community to what happens in this place and to a high quality of debate, and that we do not compromise the processes of this Assembly by moving and supporting this motion today.

MR WHITECROSS (Leader of the Opposition) (5.21): Mr Speaker, I support the motion that has been moved by Mr Humphries. There is one issue on which I am slightly concerned, and that is that there is not an explicit reference in the motion to the sharing of the material. I understand from Mr Moore, and I think Mr Humphries has repeated it, that he understands that it is on the basis that the material will be shared, but I do think it would improve the motion if there were an explicit reference to that in the motion.

I also think that the supply of the material to others ought to be on the basis that they agree to the same conditions as set out in the motion. This is one of the difficulties of not having legislation. Technically, we could be in a situation where the motion binds one television station to a series of conditions, but on it supplying material to other television stations perhaps they might not be bound by those conditions; or the first television station might be in trouble if the other stations do not abide by those conditions. I am wondering whether there is some way of tidying that up. I scribbled some words on a piece of paper. I do not know whether those words are okay from the Clerks' point of view.

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