Page 1869 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 4 May 2011
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government to do something. Putting that issue aside, it is the principle. Mr Stanhope always comes down here and talks about his principles, the separation of powers and all the things that he believes in. But the last line of Mr Stanhope’s speech on the issue finishes with:
… but we—
meaning the Assembly, or indeed the Labor Party—
have our views, we have expressed them, and we expect this government to respond to them.
I draw people’s attention to page 1052 on 29 November 2000. It is about an inquiry into disability services. Mr Wood, the then shadow minister, then moves the motion and at point 1 it reads “directs the government” to do something. There had been discussion in the Assembly a period previously. The Assembly came back and was not happy with the response of the government of the day. So what did they do? They directed the government to do something.
It is interesting that the Leader of the Opposition at the time was one Jon Stanhope. It was his shadow minister who moved the motion, which was agreed to by the Independents and the Green of the day and others. Indeed, Mr Wood closes with:
Let’s get on with it. Let’s pass this today. Again, I ask the government to accept the will of the Assembly.
It is interesting that the short memory of the Chief Minister has failed him yet again. The precedent in this place for the Assembly directing the government to do something was set by the Labor Party by a Labor Party motion. It directed the government of the day to do something. It is interesting that the Chief Minister complains in the way that he does today. Members should read what he said. It will be an interesting read, I am quite sure. The precedent, Jon Stanhope, was set by you as Leader of the Opposition when your caucus decided to pass a motion directing the government of the day to do something. If you are upset with that then you need to come back and explain your actions 10 years ago when it suited you and why it should not suit you today.
Kiribati
MS LE COUTEUR (Molonglo) (6.59): This is my Kiribati report part 2, because I did not manage to finish it all yesterday.
On Wednesday we went on a tour of a number of Australian-funded projects in Kiribati and it was a really interesting day. Probably the highlight for me was that in the morning we visited the School and Centre for Children with Special Needs. I do not know if I mentioned that the population of Kiribati is about 110,000. This school had 90 kids in it and it had a huge mix. It had deaf kids—there are a lot of deaf kids because there are a lot of inner ear infections in young children—blind kids and autistic kids. Part of the school was actually in a chicken shed.
Ms Hunter: Really?
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