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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 7 Hansard (26 June) . . Page.. 2294 ..

MR MOORE (10.12): Mr Speaker, I rise to speak against the motion for the suspension of standing orders. I note that the motion that has been distributed was received at 11.19 am today. I have just been given information about this. At 10 o'clock in the evening I have been given a quite complicated motion that deals with a whole range of issues that we have been debating for quite a number of months, with negotiations going on, including legal opinions one way or another and a whole range of meetings. To be given a few minutes' notice when it is quite clear that I could have been given it 12 hours ago means that I am simply not interested in dealing with these issues. I may not have been anyway. It seems to me, Mr Speaker, that this is no way to deal with this issue at the moment. I think, as a matter of principle, the Assembly should resist this motion for the suspension of standing orders.

MRS CARNELL (Chief Minister) (10.13): Mr Speaker, it is 10.13 pm on the last sitting day. As Mr Moore said, at the bottom of this notice it says "Received 11.19 am", this morning. Mr Berry tells us it was placed on the notice paper; but, of course, we do not get a notice paper containing it. There has been any number of opportunities for Mr Berry to bring this motion forward over the last two weeks. This is not a new issue. It started about 12 months ago.

Mr Berry: I am consulting with you about the same as you consulted with everybody else before you appointed Mr Prasad.

MRS CARNELL: It is interesting that Mr Berry says that, because that is not true. We actually - - -

Mr Berry: You never consulted with - - -

MR SPEAKER: Order! I am not about to tolerate a lot of interjections at 10.15 at night.

MRS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, Mr Berry is trying to suspend standing orders this late at night, without letting anybody know - certainly without letting us know - what the issue is. We may have been quite willing to debate this, given any indication that Mr Berry wanted to debate it tonight. This is not an issue that we raised this morning. This issue started 12 months ago. We have ended up with, I think, at least one extension of time. I think we, first of all, spoke about 1 January. We went to 1 July. There has been any amount of time for Mr Berry to bring this forward. To bring it forward after 10 o'clock, with absolutely no notice, when we have just passed a budget, means that this side of the house, Mr Speaker, cannot support a motion for the suspension of standing orders.

MS TUCKER (10.15): I will support the motion for the suspension of standing orders because this is an issue that has been of concern to us for a long time and I am happy to see it debated. It is only 10.15 pm. I think we were here until 5.00 am the last time we had the budget before us. It is pretty early, really.

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