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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 6 Hansard (18 June) . . Page.. 1784 ..

MR WOOD: Mr Speaker, I rise to make a statement under standing order 46. The Minister was suggesting that I was not accurate in my claims about a lack of consultation. I will quote from the letter we have been referring to. Mr Humphries said he signed a lot of them on 10 January. I have one of those letters here, with his signature on the bottom of it. I will read the second last paragraph, which, I think, makes the point:

The Interim Canberra Cultural Authority will be consulting on the establishment of the Authority in the near future and I encourage you to utilise this opportunity to ensure the establishment of an effective cultural body in the ACT.

Forget the last couple of words. That consultation did not occur until the meeting of Artsvoice that the Minister, two other members and I attended. It did not occur with the broader arts community, certainly, until he sent the Bill out to those bodies one week ago.

MR HUMPHRIES (Attorney-General and Minister for Arts and Heritage): Mr Speaker, under standing order 46, I also seek leave to make a statement. That is simply not true.

Mr Wood: Well, that is the letter.

MR HUMPHRIES: Yes, the letter said there was going to be further consultation, and there was. I personally met with a number of people and discussed the issue with a number of people.

Mr Wood: The bureaucrats, yes.

MR HUMPHRIES: No, I. I am not a bureaucrat; I am a politician. I discussed it with those people.

Ms Tucker: Whom did you discuss it with?

MR HUMPHRIES: Where? I discussed it in my office; I discussed it at places I went to.

Ms Tucker: Whom?

MR HUMPHRIES: I discussed it with - - -

MR SPEAKER: If you want to have a discussion, I suggest you three go upstairs. The rest of us have other things to do. Continue, Mr Humphries.

MR HUMPHRIES: I have indicated already in my reply, Mr Speaker, whom I discussed it with.

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