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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 8 Hansard (29 October) . . Page.. 2493 ..

Mr Moore: This is my legislation, not theirs.

MR BERRY: Do not kid us, Michael. Where you sit is where you stand, remember. Mr Quinlan's idea is a good one. Why can people not put on their windscreens a little sticker saying "No junk mail"? It was an idea that I heard from Ms Tucker as well. She thought it was not a bad idea.

Ms Tucker: I just should not have these ideas, obviously. You guys pick them up and use them.

MR BERRY: No; you mentioned it to me. It was not mine.

Ms Tucker: I have got an argument against it. It is my idea, so I can argue against it. It is all right.

MR BERRY: It is a jolly good idea - just a little sticker saying "No leaflets, please". That makes a bit of sense. Let us look at a couple of things here. This is the charade that Mr Moore is going through to demonstrate his independence from the Government. We have just seen what a charade it is. Here we have the Minister responsible for the portfolio which might have dealt with this agreeing wholeheartedly with Mr Moore that this is a good idea. I wonder why in Cabinet they did not agree on this idea and the appropriate portfolio Minister carry this forward. That would have seemed to me to be a sensible idea. But, no, we have this situation where Mr Moore is still keen to go through this sham. Nobody is fooled by it anymore, Mr Moore. Nobody believes that there is any shade of independence. Everybody has woken up to the proposition that where you sit is where you stand.

Mr Stanhope: What did Mr Osborne say?

MR BERRY: And what did Mr Osborne say? He was pretty close to the mark, I think. So we have this ridiculous situation where a Minister in the Cabinet comes up with an idea. Why did you not just talk to Mr Smyth and perhaps your other Cabinet colleagues and say, "What do you think about this idea, colleagues"? "Well", they might say, as they seem to have said - the Government seems to have supported this - "we think it is a good idea". Then you might say, "Well, would you mind putting it on your legislation program for me, please?". And Mr Smyth might say, "Well, Michael, I will". That would have saved us from all of this nonsense. We could have had Mr Smyth come in here and say, "I have got a good idea". Mr Moore could have been off worrying about his hospitals, methadone programs and the like, as he should be; and Mr Smyth could have been worrying about litter, as he should be. But now we have two of them worrying about litter and Mr Moore not worrying about what is going on in his hospital.

Mr Kaine: But it is okay, because Mr Smyth's next Bill will be about free methadone.

MR BERRY: I am glad that you mentioned that. People who are trying to get on the methadone program, who are strung out because they cannot get heroin, will be really pleased when they get to their car and, as a result of Mr Moore's legislation, there will be no sticker under their windscreen-wiper. They will be really happy about that.

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