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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 2 Hansard (10 March) . . Page.. 545 ..
MR HUMPHRIES
: Passionate is another euphemism that springs to mind. All sorts of epithets might be used and they do happen from time to time. The only quibble I have with the motion is that, perhaps, the word "grave" is out of place. There may be all sorts of occasions when the chair needs to close down a committee for certain things to happen that would resolve our problems and so on, but I want to put on record that this amendment should not be characterised as an amendment about a particular member, about a particular occasion or about a particular committee. It is about giving a committee the power to deal with matters appropriately before that committee and to confirm or affirm the powers that a chair ought to have in these circumstances to protect the conduct of the committee, as is his or her duty.MS TUCKER (4.51): The Greens will be supporting this motion as well. I want to put on record that I can see that there is a safety net, if you like, within the motion in that the committee shall reconvene at a time to be named by the presiding member or at a time to be fixed by the Speaker or, in the absence of the Speaker, the Deputy Speaker, on receipt of a request in writing from an absolute majority of members of the committee. That is important because if, for any reason, this power is abused there is a mechanism there for that to be dealt with. I experienced a situation in the last Assembly where I was slightly concerned. I think it is quite useful to have that power in case there is very inappropriate behaviour.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Debate resumed from 26 August 1998, on motion by Ms Tucker:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
MR HUMPHRIES (Attorney-General, Minister for Justice and Community Safety and Minister Assisting the Treasurer) (4.52): This legislation provides for 50 kilometres per hour speed limits on Canberra streets. I understand that there is a proposal that this matter be referred to an Assembly committee. In pre-empting that move, I would indicate my support for that position. As a parent with young children, I must say that I have become much more sensitive about the speed limits on suburban streets in recent days. I must say that I am feeling much more angry about seeing drivers who exceed the speed limit by sometimes quite large amounts on streets which are intended, under any guise, for people to travel reasonably slowly, certainly not over 60 kilometres per hour.
I do not approach this issue with any sense of absolute opposition to what Ms Tucker is attempting to do. But the issue is a very sensitive one. I imagine that there will be strong views expressed on all corners of the community about this issue. It is an important issue which affects every citizen of the Territory. There is not one citizen who would not either drive a car or travel in a car from time to time. There would be, therefore, probably as many opinions about 50 kilometres per hour speed limits as there would be citizens, at least adult citizens, and I think it is important that we carefully gauge what the community thinks of this proposal before we take the step of actually
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