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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 2 Hansard (1 March) . . Page.. 521 ..

MR SMYTH (continuing):

the state. In southern New South Wales there are small colonies in the Kangaroo Valley and the Blue Mountains.

I hope that the Quantum special tonight on the ABC will stimulate more community and corporate support for the captive breeding program. With that support, we can make it bigger and better. Tidbinbilla has the largest captive breeding population of rock wallabies. They can be viewed every day, but you have to be quick. They move around very fast.

Many individuals should be congratulated on the Tidbinbilla breeding program. Geoff Underwood, our wildlife officer at Tidbinbilla, and his staff deserve special congratulations because they have made a tremendous effort and they are achieving tremendous success.

On a second matter: the Assembly asked yesterday that documents from CTEC be lodged with the Clerk for members to view. That has been done. The documents were lodged with the Clerk by 5 o'clock, in accordance with Ms Tucker's motion. CTEC has prepared them in a way that documents to be released normally are. They have taken the confidential data out of them, which is not in a the spirit of what this place agreed. The first set of documents is available for members to view. I have asked that CTEC prepare a second set in accordance with what was agreed.

The form of the documents is my fault. I apologise. I spoke to Mr Stainlay when Ms Tucker moved her motion and said, "What will we do?" He told me how he would prepare a set normally for an FOI request. He prepared one set. We will get a second set quickly with all the details members said that they would view and keep confidential.

Legislative Assembly Secretariat

MS TUCKER (5.22): I do not often speak in an adjournment debate, but there is a matter that I would like people in this place to consider. It is the impact on the Secretariat of how we work. This morning, with very little notice, I asked for assistance to amend an amendment from Mr Moore which I had not seen before. I am using this as an example, but I think we have all been guilty of this, so I am not particularly targeting Michael Moore. The example that occurred today has made me want to talk and ask other people to think about the matter.

I know that for political reasons sometimes we do land things in the chamber. That is fine to a point, but when we want to make complex amendments to something that has been tabled it puts unfair pressure on the Secretariat. Today two debates have been adjourned because not all members have had a chance to get across the amendments. I know that amendments are going into the Clerk's office throughout the day. We all need to be aware that there are not many people working there, and I do not think it is fair. We are all under a lot of pressure, and we do the best we can, but sometimes we take the Secretariat for granted. I regret that. I regret it if I put them under extra stress, because I know how much they have to do. I want to acknowledge their work for the record. I also ask that we all consider how what we do impacts on them.

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