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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 11 Hansard (4 November) . . Page.. 3578 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

Now let us make a few things abundantly clear here. Let us summarise them. Labor is not opposed to competition per se. We are opposed to Bills passing through this legislature without a full public airing by the committee and an understanding of the effects that that legislation is going to have on the community. Had that forum been established and been working properly, as recommended by the committee chaired by Rosemary Follett, there might have been a more adequate public airing of the issues; and there was not. That is what it was proposed to do, on my recollection of it. Had that been the case, of course, there would have been a better public airing of it.

The fact of the matter is that this matter of public importance is appropriate. It is not appropriate by virtue of the fact that COAG exists; it is appropriate because of this Government's inadequate performance in consultation and in allowing scrutiny of matters which have been occurring in the COAG process. Mr Speaker, this is an important matter of public importance. It has allowed me to draw attention to some of the issues which have developed over time, which have not been mentioned by Mrs Carnell, in the context of Rosemary Follett's involvement in this.

Again, I summarise: Let us not forget the committee that was chaired by Rosemary Follett and the comments of Rosemary Follett in this place expressing concern about the way the Liberals handled these issues and expressing the Labor Party's commitment to social justice. We will not abandon that in favour of a hasty throughput of legislation.

MR SPEAKER: Order! The member's time has expired.

MR MOORE (5.31): Mr Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to rise to speak. I see Mr Kaine rising to speak. I understand that there is about 10 minutes to go; so, I will keep my speech very tight, Mr Speaker.

MR SPEAKER: Please do.

MR MOORE: As you know, I do regularly. That will give Mr Kaine an opportunity to speak as well. I congratulate Mr Osborne for bringing this matter to the attention of the Assembly in this MPI discussion. It is important that we bring greater scrutiny to bear, not only on COAG agreements but on all ministerial council agreements that come back to this Assembly in the form of legislation. Mr Speaker, as you would be aware, this is something that I have commented on for many years in this Assembly. I have constantly warned Ministers about bringing in legislation and saying, "This has been agreed on; so, we really have to proceed with it". That does not necessarily tie me in, unless I have been involved in some way in the preparation for those negotiations. I realise that that has not been the practice in this Assembly.

This matter has been brought to a head, I think, by concern over legislation coming out of our national competition policy that will come before the Assembly in the next couple of days, particularly the agreement on water and how we are going to deal with water. Mr Speaker, there are negotiations going on on those things at the moment. Certainly, I have been part of making sure that there is a round table conference so that we can distinguish between parts of that legislation that are tied to funding and have to be done

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