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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 11 Hansard (4 November) . . Page.. 3492 ..

MR SPEAKER: I wish to inform members that, in accordance with the Legislative Assembly (Broadcasting of Proceedings) Act, I have authorised that the proceedings of the Assembly be reticulated into specified government offices. On each side of the chamber there are lights located adjacent to the timing clocks to indicate who may be listening to the proceedings. When the red light is on, it indicates that the proceedings are being reticulated throughout this building and also to specified government offices. When the yellow light is on, it indicates that the proceedings can be broadcast by the media to the public.

MR HUMPHRIES (Attorney-General): Mr Speaker, I move:

That the Assembly expresses its deep regret at the death of Emeritus Professor Douglas Whalan, AM, who, as legal adviser to the Assembly's Standing Committee on Scrutiny of Bills and Subordinate Legislation since self-government, made a significant contribution to Canberra, and tenders its profound sympathy to his wife and family in their bereavement.

Mr Speaker, it was with much sadness that I and other members of the Assembly learnt of the death of Professor Doug Whalan recently at the age of 68. I rise here today, on behalf of the ACT Government, to pay tribute to the great contribution that Professor Whalan made to the good governance of the ACT.

Professor Whalan came to Australia from New Zealand in 1966. He first settled in Canberra, taking a position as a senior fellow in the Institute of Advanced Studies at the Australian National University. After a year he took a chair in law at the University of Queensland, where he remained until 1973, when he returned to Canberra and the Australian National University to hold a chair in law. Professor Whalan retired as the legal adviser to the Standing Committee on Scrutiny of Bills in late September this year, having served the committee since 1990. Sadly, he died soon afterwards, on 10 October 1997, after a battle with cancer.

Professor Whalan served this Assembly and the people of the ACT diligently and with absolute professionalism. He was probably the only person who could claim to have read every piece of ACT legislation, including subordinate legislation - a prospect most of us would find, to put it mildly, daunting. However, it was a task which Professor Whalan actually enjoyed and to which he turned his meticulous eye for detail and his very rare skills. In his scrutiny of legislation he was conscious of the need to ensure that legislation did not impinge unnecessarily on the rights of individuals and that its application was fair and unambiguous. All of us, at one point or another, were indebted to Professor Whalan for the advice he gave, the help he provided and his commitment to good governance.

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