Page 1973 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 24 October 1989
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Mr Jensen: You just can't stand the heat, Wayne. You know the story.
MR BERRY: Indeed, Norman, I can stand the heat. There are still five members of the Labor Party. Our numbers have not shrunk and will not shrink, Norman. Mr Speaker, this issue is essentially about the failure of the Liberals to live up to the requirements of opposition. They ought to have a guilty conscience about not being able to do that. The quality and paucity of private members' Bills which have been brought before this house, I think, clearly demonstrate the inadequacy of the Liberal Party. This motion that is being sponsored by it should be opposed.
MR DUBY (4.46): Mr Speaker, I rise to support this motion as amended by Mr Collaery. I think the debate that we have heard this afternoon has highlighted the fact that there could not be any doubt in anyone's mind that a forward legislative program is to be desired. The arguments that have been put up by the Government, that this is not provided in other houses of parliament and other places like this, simply does not wash with me. The fact remains that we are a new parliament and we are in the process of being able to establish our own way of doing things. Just because it is not done elsewhere does not necessarily mean that it does not have to be done here.
This motion recognises the fact - and I think everyone will agree - that a forward legislative program is essential to the effective scrutiny of government legislation and the good government of this Territory. I do not think anyone could disagree with that statement. It calls on the Government to provide Assembly members with that program at the beginning of each sitting session. Sitting sessions are not all that long, so the Government is not being asked to gaze into a crystal ball to try to tell us what it is going to introduce in perhaps six or eight months. To me it is not a hard thing for the Government to advise us of what sort of legislation is coming up in the immediate future. I do not think that is asking too much at all.
We note that, in response to questions asked by Mr Humphries, the Chief Minister did make an undertaking in the Assembly to provide that legislative program and to update it on a regular basis. She has clearly failed to do this. If she did not want to do it, she never should have said in the first place that she would. She should have simply put the cards on the table and said, "No, I'm not going to do it", and not shillyshallied around and pretended that she was going to be cooperative when she was not.
I think this amendment put by Mr Collaery is a very sensible one. It simply demands that the Government correct its failure to provide such a program. To me, there will be no harm done in that motion going ahead. It simply instructs the Government that this is the wish of the Assembly. I think the arguments in favour of such a
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