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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 10 Hansard (24 November) . . Page.. 2790 ..

MR BERRY: Even though, Chief Minister, government action is dependent on their recommendations. I find your response strange. I ask as a supplementary question: Could you tell us the timetable that you intend to follow to deal with the appointment of the council?

MS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, I actually did do that bit last week.

Mr Quinlan: "I really did that bit. I really didn't do the other bit".

MS CARNELL: I did both. I cannot help it if Mr Berry was not paying attention last week. Mr Speaker, as I said, a review has been put in place. First and foremost, the term of the last consultative council expired on 31 March this year. The Government did advertise in various places for expressions of interest in the new consultative council. Unfortunately, the level of interest was somewhat less than I think any of us would have hoped for. It was decided to have a review process, to review the role and, I suppose, the procedures to put in place the council and also the approaches that we are taking to nominating new members of the council.

We have sought advice from various members of the indigenous community to ensure that that occurs, Mr Speaker. As I said, the review is due to report at about this time, in November. Once we have that review, we will put in place procedures based upon that review to appoint a new consultative council. Mr Speaker, we could go ahead right now and just pick some people.

Mr Berry: What is the timetable?

MS CARNELL: I have just given it to you. In November we are going to get the report of the review, and then we are going to go ahead and put in place a new council, based upon the outcomes of the review, based upon the input that has been put in place by members of the indigenous community generally. That does not mean, by the way, Mr Speaker, that the Government is not in constant contact with members of the indigenous community on a wide range of issues. I would like a consultative council to be in place sooner rather than later. But I have to say that I think it would be high-handed and heavy-handed in the extreme for the Government just to go ahead and appoint the people we think should be on the consultative council. The whole basis of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Consultative Council is that it is made up of representatives of the community. In other words, the community puts forward the people that they think should be on the council. It is not for government to come in over the top. I am actually very surprised that Mr Berry would recommend an approach that was really, I suppose, government driven rather than community driven.

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