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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 06 Hansard (Wednesday, 23 June 2004) . . Page.. 2527 ..

not be possible to get that analysis done between now and close of business tonight. So I simply ask members to delay this debate until Wednesday next week.

MR SMYTH (Leader of the Opposition) (4.43): Mr Speaker, it is standard that amendments are delivered in this place. Some are more timely than others. Sometimes we have many days, many weeks, to look at amendments; sometimes we do them on the spur of the moment during debate. That is standard. It is standard to also shut down debates to a later hour this day to allow some discussion and to seek input from interested parties.

Mr Corbell would like to consult with the Pharmacy Guild. They have said to me that the amendment is satisfactory. They do not believe it will catch any of their pharmacies. There are not too many pharmacies that are bigger than supermarkets in the territory, Mr Speaker. The opposition will support the amendment because we believe that it is important to get a decision on this amendment and on this bill today.

MRS CROSS (4.44): I do not see the reason for Mr Corbell to ask that we adjourn something that has been on the notice paper for more than three months—in fact, something that I tabled over three months ago. As Mr Smyth said, it is not uncommon in this place for us to circulate amendments on the day a bill is debated. We have given considerable consideration to these amendments. This is a simple amendment, which the pharmacy guild is comfortable with, which addresses a problem. I see that the minister, in trying to delay this debate until next week, is simply trying to buy time. God knows what he would do in that week. I do not trust this person to do the right thing by this community.

Mr Corbell: Mr Speaker, I wish to raise a point of order.

MR SPEAKER: Order! That is an imputation that the minister is untrustworthy.

MRS CROSS: Withdrawn.

Mr Smyth: It is true!

MR SPEAKER: Who said that?

Mr Smyth: I withdraw it, Mr Speaker.

MRS CROSS: The minister has every opportunity to speak to the guild—there are members of the guild here—and he has an opportunity to speak to his colleagues in this Assembly. There is no reason for him to delay this. The reason we are adjourning this to a later hour this day is to give the minister and other members of this place time to consider this amendment. It is a simpler amendment than others that have been put forward up until today.

If the minister has a genuine interest in seeing that this bill is looked at carefully, then he will talk to the guild and he will talk to the opposition and the crossbench whether he supports it or not. The only way to do it is to work in a collaborative way. I do not see what the minister will do in one week that he cannot do tonight. That is the way we deal

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