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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 11 Hansard (8 December) . . Page.. 3266 ..

Mr Humphries: I am always honest, Mr Quinlan.

MR QUINLAN: Yes, of course you are. The majority of this house decided to set up this committee and for it to report on the first sitting day in February, in the knowledge that we had agreed on a sitting program. This motion flies in the face of that decision. In fact, the majority of this house made the decision to give the committee sufficient time. You can trot out the number of days that are available between then and now, but the number of working days and the number of people who might be able to assist this committee but are otherwise engaged during the holiday season - - -

Mr Hird: Ted, I have full confidence in you, mate.

MR QUINLAN: I think you have, Harold. I think that is what this is about. This is about trying to limit what the committee does. This is about saying, "Whoops, we got the Australia Institute report. Whoops, it looks like there is an alternative. Whoops, she has misquoted it".

MR SPEAKER: We are speaking too loudly.

MR QUINLAN: Whoops, we are excited. This is purely a contrivance to squeeze the time available to that committee.

Mr Smyth: What is it - $1m a week, $10m a week? What do we lose? Who cares? It is only money. It is only taxpayers' money.

MR QUINLAN: You know that is nonsense. That it is costing $1m a week is the same rhetoric and cant that you have come out with when you have said the organisation is at risk. Most of the organisation ain't at risk, sonny. Today's events and the exquisite timing of the tabling of the Auditor-General's report demonstrate that this Government does not wish to live within the spirit of decisions of this Assembly. In my time in this place, this Government has had very few setbacks, and to some extent I have grudging admiration for your capacity to fight and scratch to get what you want. I would not respect you otherwise. This is exactly part of it. This has nothing to do with holding up the sale. This has to do with inhibiting two things - the time the committee has to work and any public debate that might have taken place between now and the originally planned first sitting day. The originally planned first sitting day was after everybody would be back from holidays. The whole idea of the push today was to try to get most of the decision taken before Christmas so we would all forget about it. It is all contrived to ensure that we do not have public debate.

If this Assembly is going to have a select committee examine the superannuation position, that committee must be given reasonable time. The time it has now, given the Christmas break and the holiday season, is very limited, as is the availability of the expert assistance that we need so that the committee can come back with objective results - not my results, but objectively tested results, just like those the Australia Institute came in with today. I believe the Government fears that and this motion is purely a tactic. I return to what I said in the first place. Most people in Canberra know that you are proceeding with the sale now anyway. There is no way that any delay till February is going to inhibit anything you are doing.

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