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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 03 Hansard (Thursday, 11 March 2004) . . Page.. 1065 ..

The Chief Minister made the point that this does not mean that every document with a logo on it will be a document that requires authorisation. But if the document has the coat of arms on it and complies with those other regulations, it does not need to be authorised electorally. He is trying to put the logo—this logo that went through Cabinet that cost $10,000 to develop–on the same level as the Canberra coat of arms.

We should remember what the coat of arms looks like because it has not been appearing on many government documents recently. It shows a shield supported by two swans, one is black and the other is white, symbolising the Australian and European people of Australia. It appears on the Australian Capital Territory flag and has been the official symbol of government in Canberra since 1928. It appears behind the Speaker. We all show our respects to the coat of arms of the ACT when we enter and leave this chamber. Maybe the government does not like the coat of arms, maybe it does not fit in with the desired corporate image, maybe they even want to distinguish this—

MR SPEAKER: I thought that was me.

MS DUNDAS: I am happy to respect the Speaker as well, but we will get to that later. Maybe the Labor government is trying to distinguish itself from the former Liberal government, which, like other governments before it, used the coat of arms. Regardless of the reason, this is not the way to change the official symbols of Canberra—not by some underhanded change to an electoral regulation that they hoped nobody would notice. We should not be putting a marketing slogan into legislation so the government of the day can brand itself. I want to make it clear that I am happy to debate our symbols.

MR SPEAKER: The time being 12.28 the time for this debate has expired.

Suspension of standing and temporary orders

Motion (by Mrs Dunne) agreed to:

That so much of Standing and Temporary Orders be suspended to prevent Assembly Business Order of the Day relating to Disallowance of the Electoral Regulations be called on after the conclusion of discussion of the Matter of Public Importance.

Sitting suspended from 12.27 to 2.30 pm.

Questions without notice

Bushfires—warnings

MR SMYTH: My question is to the Chief Minister. Yesterday, Mr Quinlan advised the Assembly that cabinet was warned about the fires approaching the urban edge of Canberra. He said:

We talked of how close the fires would come to Canberra, and there was discussion of something maybe even a bit worse than the 2001 event.

In his response to the supplementary question, Mr Quinlan said:

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