Page 1965 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 24 October 1989
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motion also displays the willingness on the part of its mover to seek to impose on the Government a standard which the non-government parties are not required to meet.
Finally, the motion is based on a mistaken and, indeed, a contrived belief that the provision of the title of the Bill alone somehow provides a basis for public consultation on that Bill. Before I address those issues in detail, I would like to commence by making the Government's position clear. We are willing to provide the Assembly with a general description of the areas in which legislation is under preparation, and indeed I have done so.
On Thursday, 19 October, I indicated that Bills are in preparation across a wide range of areas, and I named them. The Government is not prepared, however, to nominate in advance a particular timetable for each and every Bill. The reason is quite simple. Almost all legislation is complex, as members have constantly alluded to, both in drafting and in implications.
I believe it would be foolish and misleading to nominate for each Bill a particular timing for its introduction - foolish, because the complexities that arise during the preparation of legislation frequently require a government to consult with interested groups or other governments before a Bill can be finalised. It is not this Government's style simply to set target dates for the introduction of each piece of legislation and then ram it through without giving careful consideration to the views of those who ought to be consulted in its preparation.
Against this background, the Government takes the proper and prudent course and provides representatives of parties in the Assembly with the names of Bills to be introduced at the commencement of each sitting week. This information is provided by the Deputy Chief Minister during his regular consultations with parties regarding the management of Assembly business.
In addition, the Government will often separately indicate a likely legislation timetable in relation to a particular issue. For example, Mr Speaker, we have publicly indicated our intention to introduce a dangerous weapons Bill later this year and to allow it to sit on the table of the Assembly. We have also undertaken to introduce planning legislation in the first part of next year, but only after a period of careful public consultation as well as consultation with the relevant Assembly committee.
Mr Collaery: We had that two years ago.
MS FOLLETT: Not under this Government, you could not have had it two years ago, Mr Collaery. In summary then, the Government already provides in total a substantial amount of information regarding its plans for legislation. It does not, however, propose to provide a list of all legislation together with the timetable for its
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