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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 6 Hansard (25 May) . . Page.. 1883 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (Treasurer, Attorney-General and Minister for Justice and Community Safety) (9.45): I want to make one more point, Mr Speaker. I just ask the Assembly to consider the possibility of there being a headline in the Canberra Times in a few days or few weeks saying, "First home owners scheme stalls in ACT-Commonwealth decides to hold back scheme," or something of that kind, because our legislation is deficient. I do not know whether that is going to be the case. I cannot find out at a quarter to 10 on a Thursday night.

Mr Speaker, we have two courses of action-leave it in or take it out. I put it to you that leaving it in is the safer course of action because it can be removed later if we know that the Commonwealth does not object. Taking it out would delay the implementation of the scheme and, starting from now, we have to get the scheme ready to operate because the scheme is to be administered by financial organisations out in the community. They are the ones that are actually going to provide the grants, as I understand it, to people in the community. They have to have paperwork, they have to have criteria and they have to have explanations as to what happens to people when they make these applications. We need to put that scheme out there-

Mr Quinlan: Give me a break!

MR HUMPHRIES: I am sorry, that is the advice that I have received from my department, Mr Quinlan. If you do not like the advice-

Mr Quinlan: That the Commonwealth is going to turn its back on it because we have taken out this provision?

MR SPEAKER: Order! Get on with the debate, please. It is a quarter to 10.

MR HUMPHRIES: I did not say that. I said that the Commonwealth may.

Mr Hargreaves: And they may not.

MR HUMPHRIES: That is right. What is the safer course of action?

Mr Hargreaves: To take it out.

MR HUMPHRIES: No, because we run the risk that, if they do not like it, the scheme cannot commence.

Question put:

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