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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 1 Hansard (19 February) . . Page.. 98 ..

MR OSBORNE (continuing):

Of the other two Bills I have waiting, one is also a bit complex. It seeks to extend parliamentary privilege for Assembly publications, especially committee reports, and to legislate in respect of the powers and precincts of this Assembly. The other Bill seeks a simple change to our court structure by identifying a designated child magistrate. The Government has already made it clear to me that they are not all that happy with two of these Bills and would like to do the other one themselves. That alone makes it unacceptable for me to have to go cap in hand to the Attorney-General to see whether he can sort something out for me.

The last paragraph of the motion calls on the Government to get creative and come up with an adequate solution. In my opinion - and I trust that other members will agree with me on this point - if the Government has been negligent enough to get us all into this mess, then they ought to be made to get us out of it. I understand that Mr Humphries has plans to recruit more drafters and increase their number from 13 to the usual 17 by the middle of the year. That is very honourable of you, Mr Humphries, but I do not think that is good enough.

Mr Humphries: No; 17 is not the usual. It is above the usual.

MR OSBORNE: You will get your chance.

Mr Humphries: I was just correcting a mistake you made.

MR OSBORNE: Thank you. On a good day, 17 drafters are obviously too few to cope with the body of work they are presented with each year. Historically, the non-Government members generate a substantial amount of work for the Parliamentary Counsel's Office and the Assembly. While I agree that the government of the day should have some priority in legislative drafting services, the present volume of undrafted or partially drafted Bills and the length of time that it takes to get a Bill ready for non-Government members are proof enough that the Parliamentary Counsel's Office is significantly underresourced, even under normal circumstances.

I appreciate that this Assembly is something of a special case within Australia, but that fact seems yet to be accepted by this Government and resourced appropriately. We have no guarantee that this recruitment plan will work.

Mr Humphries: That is true about life generally, is it not?

MR OSBORNE: Experienced legislative drafters do not grow on trees, and we may well find ourselves in the middle of June with no change in numbers.

Mr Humphries: So what else do I do about it - kidnap them?

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