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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 10 Hansard (14 October) . . Page.. 3196 ..
MR SPEAKER: Be quiet, Mr Berry. You are under a warning already.
Mr Berry: I will talk about it later.
MR SPEAKER: I beg your pardon.
Mr Berry: I am talking to him.
MR SPEAKER: I told you to be quiet.
MR HARGRAVES: Essentially, what we are talking about is whether one of the committees of this Assembly ought to have a little bit of extra time to complete its work.
Mr Humphries: Nine months.
MR HARGREAVES: I will deal with you, Mr Rabbit, in a minute. Mr Speaker, we have had the formal process of someone saying that, for whatever reason, a committee has not had time to complete its deliberations and asking this Assembly to extend its time. Mr Speaker, I have been listening upstairs to the drivel that has come from that side to this side of the chamber. We have had accusations about people not doing their job from the mealy mouth of the Attorney-General over there. How dare that man suggest that! How dare that man suggest that you have not done your job, Mr Speaker, and that Mr Osborne has not done his!
The Minister is the one who was asked at least 12 months ago, probably 18 months ago, to put on a project director to get on with the prison contract. The same Minister was asked well over 12 months ago to provide statistical data, financial data, to substantiate the somewhat ludicrous contention, in my view, that private prisons are cheaper than public ones.
Ms Carnell: I rise to a point of order, Mr Speaker. That has absolutely nothing to do with the motion. There is no relevance.
MR HARGREAVES: Mr Speaker, it has as much relevance as I have heard before. It is an accusation - - -
MR SPEAKER: It has not. As I have mentioned before, please be relevant.
MR HARGREAVES
: I am being relevant, Mr Speaker, and I will indicate how. Essentially, members on the other side of the chamber are saying, "He has had plenty of time to do his job, so we will knock him back". That is the relevance of my point. The Justice and Community Safety Committee has spent, in my view, at least six months more than it needed to develop its next report to the stage where it can bring it to this chamber. Why do you think that is, Mr Speaker? It is because Mr Humphries did not provide the information which the Government ought to have had in the way of
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