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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 4 Hansard (27 March) . . Page.. 919 ..

MR WOOD: Your responsibility. Well, that's fine, Mr Moore, but I would still expect the Chief Minister to have something to say. I would find it remarkable-

Mr Moore: See how we get different expectations?

MR SPEAKER: Order! Get on with it, please.

MR WOOD: Well, that's good. I am pleased that we do. Mr Speaker, are you "ordering" me or Mr Moore?

MR SPEAKER: I am just saying "order".

MR WOOD: Well, it's a fair point to ask from my position. Mr Speaker, you do have a difficult task. There is no question about that. In other parliaments Speakers also have difficult roles to play, but sometimes they are backed up by a majority assembly which does make their life a little easier. You do not have that here. The government, I think, is fortunate in the fact that it has more reliable support in these matters from two Independents than Labor Speaker McRae had when she performed that role. Mr Moore, not by interjection, indicates his disagreement with that, but I recall that Roberta McRae had an even more difficult task as she was never sure that she had the support of the Assembly behind her.

Mr Humphries came into this place a little while ago and reflected on some of the answers to questions in the time of the Labor government, and he made a reasonable point, I suppose, in the comments that he made. But I want to reflect a little more broadly than just the member that Mr Humphries focused upon. I can remember Rosemary Follett as Chief Minister answering questions, and she was exemplary in the way that she did it. She was unfailingly polite, responsive and informative-very different from the current Chief Minister and the former Chief Minister. Rosemary Follett never went on for 15 minutes at a time. It would be a rare circumstance if she did, if someone wants to check back. She was a very good example of how questions should be responded to.

I think it would be fair to say of Mr Berry that he proved that he was capable of giving colourful responses to questions. As for me, I tried then, as I try today still, to be brief and still say things that need to be said. Mr Connolly was a very effective speaker. I think if you line up the Labor ministers against the Liberal ministers we come up better in terms of answering questions precisely and effectively.

Mr Humphries forgot to give the other side of the story. He forgot that the Liberals at that time had come to a policy decision to make life as tough as possible. They had Tony de Domenico with a wonderful voice for that purpose, and Mrs Carnell who set out deliberately to break down question time. They set out to do it. It was a clear policy decision. There was a definite tactic to do that. So if Mr Humphries wants to raise one side of those questions, he should look also at the other side and the way that the opposition behaved at that time.

Mr Moore: Now you should do the same. You do the same.

MR WOOD: I will take your interjection, Mr Moore.

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