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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 8 Hansard (29 October) . . Page.. 2446 ..

MR HARGREAVES (continuing):

This Government has a magnificent tome on community consultation but I suggest to you that it is absolute rot. They do not believe a word of it. They could easily have done the same thing with one piece of paper with "Please turn over" on both sides of it, because it means nothing. I want to quote Mr Humphries. He said that this side of the house is trying to use this committee process to stifle debate. Well, excuse me! If we bring a report back to this chamber we are going to have a debate on it. We are not stifling this debate. These people on the other side of this chamber are actually denying us the democratic right to have an issue, a very important issue, researched, and I deplore that. I cannot believe it.

Mr Speaker, I think I have probably said enough for the moment, but we on this side were accused of trying to politicise the committee system. I have not heard any reason for that. There is no justification for that. There is no backup for that. It is just another piece of absolute codswallop. What we have here is a responsible member of the crossbench saying, "Basically we do not believe you, Mrs Government. How about you putting it open for scrutiny? How about you having people who know what they are talking about come and tell us about it?".

Why don't you people across there on the other benches listen for once? I appeal to Mr Rugendyke. I pay him the credit of seeing his face in this chamber all the way through this debate. I appreciate that very much. I know how concerned he is about this issue. I urge you very seriously to support Ms Tucker's motion. What she is saying is the sorts of things that you and I believed in before we came here. We are here to represent the constituents the best way we can. These people are trying to stop us from doing this. Do not let them do it. Do not let these people stop us from doing this. We have not talked about who is going to sit on this select committee. Quite frankly, from where I stand, regardless of what the party position is, I do not care who sits on it so long as there is transparency; that what we are talking about here is revealed and can be examined.

I do not urge those members opposite me to do anything except to go and examine their own claptrap. I do remind the members of the crossbench, Mr Osborne, Mr Rugendyke and Mr Kaine, that we are going to have to answer for this decision, and it is a really big one, even if it is not the biggest one in Mr Moore's mind. We are going to have to answer for this thing. Let us get it right.

Mr Smyth: Will your party give you a conscience vote on it?

MR HARGREAVES: I will treat the remark from the Minister for Urban Services with the contempt that it is due. Mr Speaker, I urge the Assembly to support very strongly Ms Tucker's motion and any amendments that may be forthcoming.

MR BERRY (1.01): After listening to Mr Moore I was encouraged to enter the debate because Mr Moore is the king of committees, or he has been in the past. In fact he has paraded himself as such throughout the community from the day he entered this Assembly. I want to read from the Chronicle of 27 October Mr Osborne's quotes as they appear there. Mr Osborne said:

... I guess once you've sold your soul the rest is easy.

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