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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 8 Hansard (26 August) . . Page.. 2384 ..

MR SPEAKER: I call Mr Humphries.

MR HUMPHRIES (Attorney-General) (2.30): Mr Speaker - - -

Ms McRae: Mr Speaker, it is question time.

MR SPEAKER: Order!

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, I move:

That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent Ms McRae from moving her motion of want of confidence in the Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning.

MR BERRY (Leader of the Opposition) (2.31): It seems to me, Mr Speaker, that there is nothing for this Government to be concerned about today, except for question time; so, Mr Humphries wants to quickly bring on the motion of no confidence in him. Mr Humphries, I am sure that you could wait for an hour for question time. I am sure that the symptoms of fear which you pretend exist in relation to this matter would not kill you until the end of question time. It seems to me that you have nothing to worry about with the motion of no confidence, because the Greens have said that they will not support it. It is unlikely that the Independents would support something that would damage their Government. Mr Speaker, here we have a Minister who cannot wait for an hour to have a motion of no confidence debated here. I am surprised he made it to the chamber.

Mr Corbell: He is hoping to get out of answering questions.

MR SPEAKER: Settle down.

MR BERRY: You are feigning sheer terror at the prospect of this no-confidence motion which you know is not going to be carried. What do you have to be worried about? I am sure you could survive until after question time. I think that is what this move by the Government is about. The Government is frightened of question time. The Government has plenty to be frightened of, because question time goes to the issues.

Mr Humphries: You are such a hypocrite, Wayne. You set the precedent in 1994.

MR SPEAKER: I am trying to listen to Mr Berry, everybody.

MR BERRY: Mr Humphries intervenes and says, "You set the precedent in 1994". Things were quite different in 1994, Mr Speaker. At that sitting of the Assembly, the first time that a matter could be brought on was in the afternoon; there was no morning sitting. This morning, of course, there was a special event in the Territory, which for good - - -

Mrs Carnell: So you think we should abort it all because of that?

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