Page 1974 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 24 October 1989
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program being made available are all too clear and obvious, and on that basis we support the motion as amended.
MR JENSEN (4.48): This issue, Mr Speaker, is really about whether the minority Government has any real legislative program to put before the people of the ACT. On 11 May this year, when the members of the minority Government opposite took up their commissions, they took up a responsibility to the residents of the ACT to legislate for the good order and government of this city-state.
Mr Speaker, this motion is about the principles of good government. I heard the Deputy Chief Minister refer to the issue of Bills being made available to members on the Monday of each sitting week. My colleague Mr Collaery has already referred to the fact that we do not have any second reading speeches in this place, for example. Another factor, of course, is that we do not have a house of review like other parliaments in Australia - except the Northern Territory and Queensland.
Mr Speaker, we all know about Queensland without its house of review. The Queensland taxpayers have just shelled out something like $24m to review some of the excesses that were built up under the executive power of a government without a house of review. We in this place owe the people of Canberra a chance to make sure that that does not happen here. So we must set the scene very early in the life of this parliament to make sure that those sorts of problems do not occur in the ACT. You can rest assured, Mr Speaker, that the Rally will be very keen to make sure that those sorts of problems do not eventuate in the ACT.
Let me briefly refer to the process by which legislation is processed through the Federal Parliament, as the Chief Minister has suggested in her speech in relation to this matter. Mr Speaker, I am referring to a book by Pettifer, House of Representatives Practice, which is acknowledged as the major reference and the basis on which this Assembly has set up its organisation and operations. Although there are some who would suggest that we should be operating under the Senate practice, that is a debate for another time in this place.
In doing this, I note the Chief Minister's comments about these practices. Let me continue by referring to table 10 on page 316, in relation to ordinary Bills, which are the majority of Bills that we are talking about. The table states:
Initiation on notice of intention to present; sometimes by leave.
First reading moved; Clerk reads title; no debate allowed.
Second reading moved immediately; Minister makes second reading speech; debate adjourned to future day.
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