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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 5 Hansard (9 May) . . Page.. 1332 ..

MR HIRD (continuing):

I believe that Peter will be sadly missed by our community for the work that he has done. I must say on a personal note that he certainly assisted me in the 1998 election as the campaign director for the electorate of Ginninderra. He will be sadly missed. I join the two previous speakers in expressing condolences to his loved ones.

I know that Peter will be in another place giving directions if there is a problem, as he used to do to us when we had problems. If he perceived a problem to be one that we as elected members could resolve, he was very quick to bring it to our attention and insist that we get a result for the person or the cause that he was championing. I opened my remarks by saying that he was a good friend. His passing will be a sad loss to me, Mr Speaker.

MR HUMPHRIES (Treasurer, Attorney-General and Minister for Justice and Community Safety) (5.51), in reply: I noted the comments today in question time by Mr Quinlan about the use of government publications to promote ministers. Mr Speaker, I have to observe somewhat wryly that, if Mr Brendan Smyth's department has been overzealous in promoting its minister, it has ample precedents to follow in such activities. I have a very thick file, which I have entitled "The Face of Labor", which is full of detailed publications-

Mr Stefaniak: There's Wayne.

MR HUMPHRIES: Indeed, there is one about Wayne. It has copious publications full of references and photographs of ministers. To pick one out, there is a publication-now discontinued-called "ACT Consumer Affairs Alert" with the then minister depicted on the front page in a photograph. There is another picture of the minister on page 2. There is a picture of the minister on page 3 as well. Page 4 has a reference to something the minister was doing. It said that the minister responsible for consumer affairs had warned about something. On page 5 there is another picture of the minister. Five out of five so far, which is pretty good. On page 6 there is another picture of the minister. It is only small, but he is there, Mr Speaker.

Mr Stefaniak: Is he in the sports pages, too?

MR HUMPHRIES: No. Page 7 is sadly lacking, Mr Speaker; there are no pictures of or references to the minister. Obviously, someone got the sack over that exercise! Again, page 8 starts off with references to the work of the minister for consumer affairs. Much as we are chastised by the comments of the opposition, we have to say that there are plenty of precedents for self-promotion and they do not come from this side of the house.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

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