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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 1 Hansard (17 February) . . Page.. 275 ..

MR MOORE: No, I said that concerns had been expressed. I sought to adjourn the debate, and Mr Humphries put it to the Assembly that we ought to adjourn the debate, to allow time to consider the issues. Let us look at another recommendation by the committee which makes good sense and consider how we are going to achieve it. The report of the committee states:

The committee recommends that the Chief Magistrate produce, on an annual basis, a report which consolidates data on children's court matters into one report. It should include:

(i) information on training undertaken by all magistrates such as the number of training hours and type of training;

(ii) feedback from children and young people and relevant community and government agencies about their perceptions of the children's court;

(iii) waiting times for court cases including length of time from initial listing to resolution - - -

Mr Hargreaves: We have all read it. You are using up time.

MR MOORE: I may need to seek an extension of time. You just cannot tell with some of these things. The report goes on:

(iv) the number of magistrates hearing each case; and

(v) the number of hours spent on Children's Court matters by the Children's Court Magistrate and the Deputy Children's Court magistrate and the reason for relief by the Deputy Children's Court magistrate.

Mr Speaker, it seems to me that there are some genuine issues that the Government should rightly have the opportunity to deal with. Members ought to be conscious of the fact that there will be times when they seek to have further consideration of legislation. This Government has always been willing to provide the extra time, but I can see that the days of that situation have basically passed.

MR HARGREAVES (6.17): I will be very brief. Mr Kaine put it quite rightly earlier. We know what the Government's position is on this. They have had an objection to it from day one. The bottom line is that they did not agree with a three-year appointment and they are just bluffing and puffing and carrying on. Now they are trying to weasel out of the whole thing. They are trying to buy a bit of extra time so that they can come up with some grand plan to get out of the whole thing. It is about time this Government just accepted the fact that this is a good piece of legislation. It requires a little bit of guts and gumption on the part of this Government. We ought to stop using up time and filibustering around the place just to prove some minor points.

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