Page 3714 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 28 October 2015
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than that if he is publicly able to. I am sure he would. I think he would be very pleased to announce that but I think that would be beneficial because I know many people are waiting to find out the outcome on this.
I hope—and I have a degree of optimism with the changes that we have seen in the federal government—we get a better level of support from the federal government. I would certainly urge my colleagues in the Liberal Party here in the ACT to make representations to their federal colleagues to ensure that we have a full inquiry. The sooner we can get commonwealth support and engagement the sooner we can get underway. I agree that there is value in getting on with this in a timely manner but we have to get on with the right inquiry. We need the commonwealth on board and that is why I will be supporting Mr Barr’s amendment today.
MR HANSON (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition) (11:03): I am happy to speak to the amendment and close. I thank members for their contributions today. We have points of disagreement and we have points of agreement. That is pretty clear. It seems that the point of agreement is the need for an inquiry. The point of disagreement is the time frame. The reality is that the vote in the chamber today will mean that Mr Barr’s amendment will get up. But we will not be supporting it. That is not to say there are not some good elements in there. There are some good suggestions. Fundamentally it does not support the calling of an inquiry with an earlier rather than a later reporting date. So I cannot support the amendment.
A couple of points that Mr Barr and Mr Rattenbury have raised include the desire to work with the commonwealth and New South Wales and I indicate through you, Madam Deputy Speaker, to the Chief Minister that I would support that. If Mr Barr believes that having my support and that those discussions with the Prime Minister and with the Premier of New South Wales would assist, if that is the path that we are taking—and it appears that we are—then I will offer my assistance to facilitate that because, although I believe it is time to get on with it, if the government is taking that approach then that is a better approach than not having anything.
What I would like to see is the commonwealth and potentially New South Wales participating in that process so that we can get on with it sooner rather than later. I hope that if we get some success there then that process can start in a relatively short time frame, for the reasons that I have outlined.
There were a couple of points that I would address in terms of the time frame in connection with an election and so on. I think that, given that this is being dealt with in a substantive sense by this Assembly, by members of this Assembly, it would be good to have it done in this Assembly. If that is not achievable then I am willing to discuss it but certainly this process needs to start. If the time frames need to be longer let us have the discussion.
With regard to bipartisanship, I hope the comments I have just made express the view that we are trying to get the right result. We have a difference of opinion but I am not going to be obstructionist in any sense. But what I would say is that the call for the inquiry was bipartisan, arising out of a committee, and then stopped being bipartisan when it got to the Chief Minister. We can squabble about that if we like but that is the
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