Page 336 - Week 01 - Thursday, 17 February 2011
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It was a sensational effort. Ivan, I think, was being modest. I would like to pay tribute to Ivan and his team who did such a fantastic job. The TransACT Rocks Movember team included TransACT general manager, Retail, David Parkes; Hellenic Club of Canberra President, Theo Dimarhos; Rock Development director, John Efkarpidis; King O’Malley’s managing director, Peter Barclay; and Sybil’s Closet owner, Danielle Neale, who participated by letting her leg hair grow.
I would like to pay tribute to the entire team and to all of the organisers of Movember. It is a fantastic cause. It grows every year. But I think, as Canberrans, we should be very proud that a team based in the ACT has managed to get the highest amount in the world and that Ivan Slavich, as one of our own, has been able to get the highest individual score. Well done.
Tabling of documents
MR SMYTH (Brindabella) (5.04): I am disappointed that the Chief Minister has left because the Chief Minister needs to hear what I have to say. We have just had the third incident this week where the government has tabled documents without providing to all members at the time of tabling adequate numbers of copies of those documents being circulated, as has been the practice in this place since 1989.
The first incident was, of course, the Hawke review. And I have to congratulate the Speaker on writing to the government to say we want copies for all members and that those copies should be distributed. I understand the Greens members of this place have got their copies but, of course, the Liberal Party have not. This is a deliberate tactic, clearly, of the government and it is a tactic that I think undermines the basic obligation that all members be allowed to do their job in this place by having receipt of information.
We also have the case where the Minister for Planning tabled a draft variation on a disc. It is impossible to pick up a disc and flick through it or read it and respond on the spot in this place.
This afternoon, in response to a motion of the Assembly from last year which called on the government to table by February a response to the findings of the Loxton report on a plan for new attractions in the ACT and a plan for the accommodation industry in the ACT, the Chief Minister tabled the government’s response—and I will not comment on the content because there is none—without warning to anyone. I have asked the Speaker and the Speaker informs me it was not on his list of papers to be tabled. It is certainly not listed on the draft program that is circulated every Monday afternoon post cabinet. And it really is a huge deviation from the practices that we have in this place.
People might say: “It is just a document. Get your own copy later on.” But there are established principles here. This relates to the ability of members to respond on the spot to what the government says. Indeed, when the minister tabled it, there was just some sort of mumbling, “I have got another document,” and it was thrown on the table. I hope I am not revealing something I should not but the Speaker said to me he was not aware it was being tabled because he was moving out of the Speaker’s seat.
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