Page 1824 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 18 October 1989
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my view, come out of the Assembly vote. Clearly, the onus is on ACTEW to fund that research and to prepare the relevant research data. Given the fact that fluoride was on the agenda for months in this Assembly, that research data should have been prepared and presented by Minister Grassby. It is no excuse to blame fledgling political parties for their alleged ineptness.
When you have government you are obliged to act under the laws. You have an Act of parliament, the Federal Parliament originally, which set out very clearly the functions of ACTEW. ACTEW knew well that fluoride was an issue because very early in self-government, in the first few weeks, I attended a briefing with Mr Prowse and with the chairman of ACTEW, Mr McGrath, where we discussed fluoride. Whilst I am sure Mr McGrath requires more concrete direction, the fact is that there is a high level of failure on the part - and I say this with regret - of the relevant Minister responsible. You cannot just sit back and allow - if your proposition is correct - a bunch of people you criticise to take fluoride out. You should have been prepared with cogent arguments; you should have been there ready, pursuant to your legal obligations, to rectify and process and evaluate the claims being made, particularly those made by Mr Prowse and Mr Stevenson.
Mr Stevenson: They are not here, Bernard.
MR COLLAERY: Yes, I note for the record that, of course, the Chief Minister, the Deputy Chief Minister and the Minister responsible for the matters I am referring to are not present in the Assembly.
Mr Wood: Well, if you are not here at any time, I will indicate that, too.
MR COLLAERY: Clearly, the leader of the Rally was going to stand up here and either do a mea culpa or transfer the blame. So, either way, I would have been there to see it, Mr Wood. Obviously, it is not an interesting debate and most of - - -
Mr Prowse: This is supposed to be a matter of urgency, too.
MR COLLAERY: That, of course, typifies the problems in the Assembly at the moment. It is a fact that laws can be created in a few minutes in this Assembly. We do not have second reading speeches and, as I said to the Chief Minister, she must appoint a solicitor-general at an early date. The onus should not lie particularly upon the legally qualified and practising members of this Assembly. That is not the appropriate thing. It puts considerable strain on us. We have already seen what happened this week with the necessity to close the proceedings early yesterday simply because we had a mass of questions on the Bills program. I am sure that will get better. I applaud the Chief Minister's initiatives to get a Bills committee going.
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