Page 1954 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 24 October 1989
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Mr Speaker, the need for the forward legislative program has been quite evident this week. I must say that there has been a level of consultation and there has been a genuine attempt from all parties, as far as I can determine, to see the Government's meagre Bills schedule attended to on the floor of this Assembly.
That has meant many extra hours, and it has meant another lost luncheon break for most of us on this side of the house today. This goes on in the evenings and it goes on in the mornings when we are attempting to determine the meaning of a Bill, the reason for it and the need for it from an explanatory memorandum which in some cases should be further fleshed out. Only belatedly has the Government made the offer to have the excellent public servants who are administering these law reform packages made available to brief us.
Mr Speaker, I do not wish to be churlish about that. This is a good sign - a very belated sign - when we are allowed now to speak directly to public servants. We know, particularly in the school area, that was a tactic at the beginning to ensure that there was no real, effective interface between MLAs and public servants.
Mr Speaker, the fundamental requirements of a stable government include a government Bills schedule which provides a flavour to that office that indicates where the Government proposes to go and which gives the opposition time to prepare an adequate, reasoned response and to properly consult the constituency at large. It is in the community interest for there to be a proper legislative program in this house.
Analysing the failure of the Government to date to come to grips with it, and accepting in good faith the ad hoc attempts in the last week or so to give us some briefing assistance, we see the glimmers of good faith there somewhere, but basically gamesmanship appears to be the tactic long developed out of the party room struggle for this process. Really, a legislative program to make laws for the benefit of all of the community cannot and should not be subjected to the level of tactical points scoring that has gone on in the introduction of Bills to date.
Mr Speaker, the other issue, of course, is that the Government has a moral and political obligation to its own party. I do not wish to remind the Labor Party of its origins, but there are many community based legislative reforms that are not coming through from this party. Clearly, this party is disappointing its own constituency, and that again is something it needs to face up to. Of course, the Government wants to coast by causing dissension and division in this house and proposing theories of government which amount to a rationing out of Bills every week or so, some of them mere amendments, some of them uncoordinated amendments.
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