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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 3 Hansard (23 March) . . Page.. 681 ..

MR HUMPHRIES: Thank you for your learned opinion, Mr Hargreaves, but the fact is - - -

Mr Hargreaves: That is gobbledegook, and you know that it is gobbledegook. That is just rot and you know it.

MR HUMPHRIES: It is perfectly clear, Mr Hargreaves. The Government has discussed the issue of separation - - -

Mr Hargreaves: Stakeholders!

MR HUMPHRIES: Okay, I will tell you who the stakeholders are. If you would be patient for a minute and sit back quietly in your chair, I will explain to you who the stakeholders are.

Mr Hargreaves: Do your worst because we have seen your best.

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Hargreaves asked me a question and he does not seem to want to have an answer, Mr Speaker.

MR SPEAKER: Yes, indeed. You have the floor, Mr Humphries.

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, the stakeholders are people such as the Australian Federal Police Association, the Australian Federal Police ACT Region, members of this Assembly with whom I have discussed the question of separation on a case-by-case basis on many occasions in the last three or four years, members of the Federal Government, and in fact anybody else I think that you might consider to be a relevant party in these matters. I have not gone to them and said, "Here is the proposal. Here is what we want to do. Comment on that", because we have not got a proposal as yet. We have a concept which I have put on the table, as is my duty to give people advance warning of this being a possible issue.

If I took the other approach, the alternative approach, and worked out behind closed doors what should be the full scenario and then threw it on the table before it was going to happen and say, "Here is what we are going to do. You have got two weeks to comment", I would be accused of not having consulted, and quite rightly so. So I have taken the responsible course of action and I have put on the table an issue which has now arisen.

Mr Hargreaves: Policy by media.

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Hargreaves is incorrigibly unsatisfied. I cannot do much about that. I would say to Mr Hargreaves that if he were in my position he really could not have done anything more than I have done. I put to Mr Hargreaves across the chamber: What would you have done that was different from what I have done?

Mr Hargreaves: I would not do it by policy by media.

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