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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 1 Hansard (30 April) . . Page.. 249 ..

Ms Carnell: It was what I had in front of me.

MR QUINLAN: What we discussed on Tuesday was that. You know that. Without all the acrimony that goes on in the games that we play here, I seek leave to table that document. It might be interesting later.

Leave granted.

Motion (by Mr Humphries) agreed to, with the concurrence of an absolute majority:

That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent the order of the day, Executive business, relating to the Remuneration Tribunal (Amendment) Bill 1998 being called on forthwith.

Debate resumed.

MR MOORE (Minister for Health and Community Care) (3.55): This piece of legislation probably originates from a letter that I sent to the Clerk. In fact, when I read the advice the Clerk wrote on the matter of Executive committees, I felt that, if the advice that he applied to Executive committees also applied to other officers within the Assembly, it would mean that for the last five or six years the payments made to chairs of committees, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition and so forth - in fact, it was Whips and Deputy Leader of the Opposition that occurred to me because the others were covered in standing orders - were in some doubt. On reflection, perhaps that added a complexity, but on the other hand it meant there was some doubt.

I think all this legislation actually does is clarify doubt. Rather than having this sort of thing challenged and sorted out by a court, it is far better to remove the doubt completely and ensure that people can be appropriately and adequately paid for a role and at the level the Remuneration Tribunal has decided. We have an umpire to decide those things and that is how it ought to be.

A suggestion appeared in the media at one stage that I had acted out of some devious and Machiavellian motive. Although I quite enjoy reading Machiavelli and even quoting from Machiavelli in my thesis, it does strike me that this was anything but Machiavellian. Had I been Machiavellian, I would have waited four or five months before raising this issue, or done it through the courts. That would have been a smarter way to do it.

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