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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 6 Hansard (22 June) . . Page.. 1602 ..

MR STANHOPE: I realise that, Chief Minister. Mr Speaker, I move:

Ms Carnell: Are you going to speak to it? We will not mind if you do not.

MR STANHOPE: You are in very good humour today, Chief Minister. Mr Speaker, as the Clerk has just announced, I have given notice that, seven days hence, I shall move:

I now propose, in accordance with this motion, that, in effect, the Assembly's sitting pattern for 1999 be adjusted by the deletion of two days of this week and one of next week; in other words, effectively allowing me to adjourn the Assembly in a subsequent motion until Wednesday week. I do that, Mr Speaker, in recognition of the seriousness and the gravity of the motion of which I have given notice, a motion of which notice has been given after very serious consideration of a number of matters going to the Opposition's view of Ms Carnell's fitness to be Chief Minister and Treasurer.

In proposing that the Assembly adjust the sitting pattern and adjourn for a week, I am mindful of the seriousness of the matter, of the gravity of the issue that has been proposed, and of the possible consequences, not only for the Chief Minister, but also for the Assembly, the Government and the Territory. In doing so, Mr Speaker, I am mindful of the fact that both the Self-Government Act and the standing orders require that I give seven days notice of such a motion. That, in itself, is recognition of the seriousness of the matter, the gravity of this situation and the need for us all to focus seriously on what it is that we are doing.

In proposing this course of action we are responding, in the first place, to the seriousness of the issue. Secondly, we are responding to the fact that the business of this week does involve, so far as the Government is concerned, consideration of a number of revenue Bills, a number of budget-related issues, and matters going to the budget, issues that are actually central to the motion of which I have given notice, namely, Ms Carnell's fitness to be Chief Minister and Treasurer. It would be odd in the extreme, Mr Speaker, for us to debate those issues, to actually come to a considered opinion on them, when they go to the very question of the want of confidence which the Labor Party will be expressing in a week's time. That is the second reason that I am proposing this course of action.

The third, and significant, reason is the convention or the precedent that has been established in previous Assemblies in similar circumstances in which oppositions have moved motions of want of confidence and the Assembly has not, in the interregnum, undertaken business, that it has in fact risen for a week, that it has suspended its business in deference to and recognition of the seriousness of the issue. These are grave

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