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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 8 Hansard (29 August) . . Page.. 2507 ..

MR KAINE: Thank you, Mr Speaker, and thank you, members. I think this is an important issue that every member of this place ought to be fully informed upon. I have received two very significant and voluminous documents within the last 24 hours. I have received the documents that the Chief Minister has just tabled, and only yesterday I received that document from ACTEW as a submission to the Finance and Public Administration Committee that has been oversighting this matter. I have had no time to read either.

I am personally convinced that what the government is proposing to do here, or has decided to do, is the right way to go. It has been a long and laborious process, but I do concede that some members of the Assembly have not been as well informed as I have. Having been a member of the finance committee and having had regular meetings with the people involved in this, I think I am pretty well informed, but there are other members of this place who have no information at all. It has been put on them now and the decision has been made.

The Assembly did endorse the action that the government has taken, but I think we all need to be aware of the circumstances and the detail of the arrangements that have been set in place. We cannot debate it fully this morning, and if we do not adjourn the debate there will be no future opportunity to do so. I am suggesting, Mr Speaker, that an adjournment of the debate will allow those people who have not seen any of this information before, except perhaps a bit of information that has appeared in the media from time to time, an opportunity to fully inform themselves. If there is a resumption of the debate at some point in time they can at least know what the contents of these documents are, know fully what the arrangements are that the government has entered into, and can come to some conclusions about what they believe the ramification of those arrangements to be. Otherwise I think it is a pretty sterile debate.

For that reason, Mr Speaker, I have moved that the debate be adjourned and made an order of the day for some future day of sitting.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

The Clerk: The following petition has been lodged for presentation:

By Mr Smyth, from 974 residents, requesting the Assembly to revoke variation 158 to the Territory Plan, concerning the Manuka redevelopment, so that local businesses can continue to place chairs and tables on Manuka lawns.

The terms of the petition will be recorded in Hansard and a copy referred to the appropriate minister.

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