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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 7 Hansard (21 June) . . Page.. 2295 ..

Mr Berry: So retrospectively.

MR HUMPHRIES: Retrospectively. Mr Moore's amendments propose as of 1 July six years after the document's submission date. After that point, which in the case of the passage of this legislation would be 1 July this year presumably, decisions made variously six years or 10 years after 1 July this year will be exposed to public gaze.

Mr Speaker, as I said, I have a concern about making this retrospective by six years, and the Liberal Party's view is that we should be making it retrospective only by 10 years. The question of putting it in the public arena is a matter about which I think there can be no doubt or no debate. We have had considerable comment about the need for openness in government. It seems to me that if we are prepared to be open about what governments do within a relatively short space of time, within six years of them making those decisions, which is the position of the Labor Party-

Mr Berry: Prospectively, of course. Quite a bit of difference.

MR HUMPHRIES: Well, if we are prepared to do that, it seems to me we should be prepared to do that about all decisions that we have made, not just about those for which we can prepare, the argument being that it should not be retrospective because cabinet members at that time did not have the capacity to dress their decision up or to tailor their debate in such a way that it would stand public scrutiny. Mr Speaker, I do not think that is consistent with a concern about openness and accountability.

Mr Berry: Why not one year so we can look at all of yours? This is a joke.

MR HUMPHRIES: If you are concerned about openness and accountability then you are obviously concerned to put things on the public record in an appropriate time frame.

Mr Berry: Why not one week so we can look at all last week?

MR HUMPHRIES: The question about whether it is one year retrospectively, six years retrospectively, 10 years retrospectively or 30 years retrospectively reminds me of that probably apocryphal story about Lord Byron who was travelling in the coach and who said to the lady who was travelling on the coach with him and whom he did not know, "Madam, if I gave you a million pounds would you sleep with me?" She responded, "Yes, your lordship, I would." Then he said, "If I gave you �10 would you sleep with me?" She said, "What do you take me for?" and he said "We have established what you are. We are merely haggling over the price." Mr Speaker, that in a sense is what we are doing here. If we believe the cabinet decisions should be on the table-

Mr Berry: Why not the ones last week, Gary? Why not the ones last week?

MR HUMPHRIES: There is an argument for that, Mr Berry.

Mr Berry: Well, make it.

Mr Quinlan: You are making it.

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