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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 11 Hansard (6 November) . . Page.. 3724 ..

MR MOORE: He is chair of the Legal Affairs Committee, Mr Speaker, and it is entirely appropriate for a committee chair to defend a report that they have tabled. It is entirely appropriate, and so it must be.

MR SPEAKER: I remind you of standing order 116, which states:

Questions may be put to a Member, not being a Minister, relating to any bill, motion, or other public matter connected with the business of the Assembly, of which the Member has charge.

It is that tail that I have a problem with because, effectively, the member no longer has charge of that particular report.

MR MOORE: No; that is a total misinterpretation.

MR SPEAKER: My understanding is that it was presented to the Assembly on 25 September 1996.

MR MOORE: No, Mr Speaker, that is not the capacity in which I asked the question of Mr Osborne. I did not ask him in his capacity as the chair of a report; I asked him in his capacity as chair of the Legal Affairs Committee. He is still the chair. It is that Legal Affairs Committee that brought down a report, and a series of reports, and I can ask him a question about any of those reports at any time, quite clearly, because he has charge of the committee. It is a very strange interpretation of standing orders that you have given, Mr Speaker.

MR SPEAKER: No; you are drawing far too long a bow, I think, Mr Moore. I will have a look at the matter for you, nevertheless.

MR MOORE: Thank you, Mr Speaker. I think it is a serious issue and I would be happy to discuss it with you in private as well. My supplementary question, Mr Speaker, to Mr Osborne is this: Did your report, in fact, distinguish between surveillance cameras that were held in private hands and those used in broad public areas?

MR OSBORNE: Thank you, Mr Moore. Yes, we did. I would like to finish on one point. Mr Speaker, the committee worked very well on this issue of surveillance cameras, I thought. Mr Kaine is still here, but Ms Follett is not. We worked very well on it and if the Minister had any problems with our recommendations he had ample time to come back to our committee and say, "Look, we cannot do it". But he has chosen now, this late in the term of this Assembly, to stick his little hand up, carry on like a big sook, and say, "We cannot get our surveillance camera trial up". Look at you squirming there in your seat; you are pathetic. Mr Speaker, if he had come to our committee we would have looked at the issue. I am sure that Mr Wood would have been happy to look at it, and I am sure that Mr Hird would have been happy to look at it.

Mr Humphries: So you want to back down. That is fine.

MR OSBORNE: If you want to make it an election issue, Mr Humphries, fine; but I will be exposing you for what you are.

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