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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 10 Hansard (18 October) . . Page.. 3147 ..
MR STANHOPE (Leader of the Opposition): Mr Speaker, I ask for leave to move a motion arising out of the resignation of Ms Carnell as Chief Minister.
Leave not granted.
MR STANHOPE (Leader of the Opposition) (10.49): Mr Speaker, I move:
That so much of the standing and temporary orders be suspended as would prevent Mr Stanhope from moving a motion arising out of the resignation of Ms Carnell as Chief Minister.
Mr Speaker, I move this motion with some regret. I had hoped that the resignation of Ms Carnell yesterday as Chief Minister would have put an end to the need for this motion today. The concern that the Labor Party has, and it is a genuine and appropriate concern, is the expressed intention of the then Chief Minister elect to appoint Ms Carnell to the ministry. The Labor Party thinks that is simply inappropriate.
The Labor Party's concerns arise out of the expressed views of the now Chief Minister that he is actively considering the possibility or the prospect of appointing Ms Carnell to the ministry. Our view, the view which we wish to debate in this place, is that that is simply inappropriate. It is unprecedented. It would be unprecedented in any parliament in Australia for a minister who resigns as a result of a no confidence motion to be immediately recycled back into the ministry. That this is an appropriate standard to apply to this parliament, or to any parliament, is something with which we simply will not agree. The prospect that someone facing a no confidence motion, which they know they will not survive, simply resigns and then rotates straight into another ministry-
Mr Moore: Mr Speaker, this is about the suspension of standing orders.
MR SPEAKER: Yes. Please remember that we are dealing with a very narrow debate here, Mr Stanhope.
MR STANHOPE: Absolutely-the need for the suspension of standing orders to allow debate on this basis to proceed. That is an issue. This is unprecedented. It is an attack on the basis of a no confidence motion. This parliament has effectively expressed its want of confidence in the former Chief Minister. The former Chief Minister acknowledged that by resigning yesterday in the face of that motion. That is the basis of and the reason for the Chief Minister's resignation. We know that. Yet we are faced today with the prospect that that minister who has that want of confidence will go straight back into the ministry. It is unprecedented that that device would be used. In any circumstance where a minister is sin-binned as a result of a motion of want of confidence or as a result of a censure-
Mr Moore: Mr Speaker, I take a point of order.
Mr Hargreaves: Sit down, Michael.
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