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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 13 Hansard (20 November) . . Page.. 3833 ..

Connors inquiry

MR CORBELL: Mr Speaker, in question time today, Mr Pratt asked me if the Department of Education, Youth and Family Services will be receiving a draft copy of the Connors report. The answer is: the department will not be receiving a draft report. The final report will be presented to me.

ACTION buses

MR CORBELL: Mr Speaker, in an answer to a question from Ms Gallagher today, I indicated that there had been an increase of over 200,000 boardings on ACTION. I have to correct the record. The total increase has been 166,000 boardings.

Answers to questions

MR SPEAKER: During question time, Mrs Dunne raised a point of order in relation to a question which was asked by Mrs Cross. I think Mrs Dunne attempted to rely on the same-question rule in relation to Mrs Cross' question. The relevant standing order is 117 (h), which reads:

A question fully answered cannot be renewed.

She referred to a question asked by Mr Pratt last Tuesday. Mr Pratt's question went to issues around terrorism and the Bali tragedy and the increased risk to citizens in the ACT and posed the question:

What instructions have you given to police and emergency services regarding the heightened threats to the community in the wake of recent events and subsequent intelligence flowing from those events?

Mrs Cross' question went to an announcement by the federal government yesterday, according to the question, and to the issues of terrorism and al-Qaeda operatives and government buildings being high on their list of possible targets. The question that Mrs Cross asked was:

Minister, can you confirm whether the government has taken measures to increase security, and have such considerations included the Legislative Assembly precincts?

Clearly, the questions are different and they are also made against a different background. If members raise these points of order in the future, I would appreciate it if they would have a look at some of the background before raising them, because the same-question rule also relies on similar events. Events have moved on in relation to this particular matter.

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