Page 1821 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 18 October 1989
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
the committee has gone through a full week of public hearings at which nearly 1,000 pages of evidence were taken, together with hundreds of pages of additional information sought by members during the hearings.
It is obvious that the committee could not, in the time given by the Assembly, undertake the extensive examination required in order to present to the Assembly a worthwhile report. Given the time and effort that members, Ministers and public servants - particularly those on the committee staff - have devoted to this historic first Estimates Committee, I am sure that members will support this motion.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
WATER SUPPLY (CHEMICAL TREATMENT) BILL 1989
Debate resumed.
MR COLLAERY (3.26): I think the speakers who have preceded me have adequately indicated the chastened circumstances in which the Assembly finds itself on this subject and, to a greater or lesser extent, all of the Assembly. I have indicated privately to the Chief Minister that one very good process that has been accelerated out of this problem has been the Chief Minister's proposal for there to be a Bills scrutiny committee, which is on the notice paper today. Also it is the view of the Rally that the Chief Minister should appoint as soon as possible a solicitor-general to aid her in the, as it were, politico-legal aspects of her legislative program. That, of course, would be an aid to the rest of the Assembly as well because it would ensure that the Chief Minister in particular was aware, in the case of a private member's Bill, of any aspects that were not drawn out in the explanatory memorandum. As we know, that is the responsibility of the private member bringing the Bill. So, some good has come out of this.
I do want to address a couple of points. I agree for once with Deputy Chief Minister Whalan, that we have suffered out of this, but I do say that it is not merely the workings of this side of the house that have brought that about. The Hansard debates on 27 September indicate that the Government either gave up or simply had no contribution to make at the detail stage. There are only 10 or 11 lines from the Deputy Chief Minister who was speaking first and last in the detail stage. The Hansard tapes upstairs make fascinating listening and I invite all members to listen to the comments of the Chief Minister on the Hansard tape at the juncture when the Deputy Speaker moved clause 3 - that is the substantive part of the Bill - at the detail stage. I believe that the Chief Minister herself was surprised that we had gone rushing through the detail stage so quickly. Her comments on the tape bear that out.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .