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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 10 Hansard (26 November) . . Page.. 3154 ..

Motion (by Mr Humphries) proposed:

That the Assembly do now adjourn.

MR BERRY (7.54): Mr Deputy Speaker, I want to report a rather significant event which has occurred in the last couple of days, and it relates to a motion which was moved in this Assembly. I refer to the motion on Pinochet. Some of you who were travelling home early this morning would have heard news that the House of Lords ended up with a three to two decision by a panel of judges in the House and the position now is that it is up to the Home Secretary, Britain's Interior Minister, to make a decision by 2 December on whether or not extradition proceedings can proceed. I hope that those extradition proceedings occur.

Mr Deputy Speaker, the Chilean community in the ACT is over 2,000 strong. Many of them have been affected by this regime in one way or another in the past. They have been actively campaigning to ensure that this result was achieved. I would like to be able to say that our motion had something to do with it, but I know that our motion would not have affected the judgment of the courts. Nevertheless, I think it was an appropriate gesture in response to the reaction from the Chilean community to this issue as it unfolded in the United Kingdom.

I note also that members of the Chilean community were again outside the British High Commission around midday today thanking them for their support in the matter. It is now up to Britain's Interior Minister, and I trust that a result which pleases the Chilean community will occur.

Mr Deputy Speaker, this week has been a very busy week. It has been a distressing one for many. It has been particularly distressing for women in the ACT. I hope that at some time in the future the members opposite who were responsible for the activities of this week will be brought to book for it.

MR OSBORNE (7.57): Last night I attempted to speak in the adjournment debate at the end of that long, tortuous process, Mr Deputy Speaker. I would just like to take the opportunity now to thank my supporters from many quarters. I thank my staff for the effort they put in in relation to the Bill yesterday and the other people who were involved. It is also important for me to take the opportunity to note, but not in detail, some of the fraudulent claims by a small, fanatical splinter group which has attempted, unsuccessfully, to divert attention from their own inadequate claims. This group, which out of courtesy

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