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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 12 Hansard (5 December) . . Page.. 3695 ..

MR HARGREAVES (continuing):

That is what you are doing. I would urge Mr Osborne and the entire crossbench to be a bit even - handed about this.

It either applies to everybody who gives political donations, or it does not, and if the big issue is about disclosure, have another look at this list. What I see on this list is the Liberal Party and the Labor Party. I do not see on this list in the Canberra Times anything given to Independents or the Osborne group, which came into this chamber here and destroyed itself inside about 30 minutes.

Mr Berry: Come on, you are being nice so far.

MR HARGREAVES: I am being nice and I intend to continue. I do not see those here and part of the reason why they are not in this newspaper clipping is because nobody could care less how much these people are getting for their campaigns, but it is a big political point - scoring exercise for us. So I would urge Mr Osborne to think seriously about whether he wants to go on the record to say he received absolutely nothing in cash and in kind.

MR MOORE (Minister for Health, Housing and Community Care) (8.43): Mr Speaker, I have to say that the most sensible comment so far this evening, in my opinion, was Ms Tucker's, as it actually focused on what this amendment is, rather than on the broader issues, which we will get to when we reach my seventh amendment.

If you look at your bill, this amendment removes the word "community". Where it said "a licensee must record each community contribution" it now says "must record each contribution", so all contributions are covered. It then adds my clause:

To that extent, there is an element about which Mr Quinlan is right: this does settle the legislation - and I have made that clear - for the final amendment, which is the one that has the effect that he was talking about.

But this does stand on its own. I think that is Ms Tucker's point. This stands on its own and can be debated that way. There are a few things that I would like to say in response to the comments made so far. Mr Quinlan's speech and other Labor speeches I think actually say much more about the Labor Party than they do about the people at whom they are directed.

Mr Quinlan is wrong. My amendments do not stop donations. What this full set of amendments says is that, where a donation is made to a political party, there is a dollar -

Mr Quinlan: Did I say "stop" or "inhibit"?

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