Page 2059 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 25 October 1989
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Assembly, wishing to know if they wanted briefing on any of the legislation which was before the Assembly. On the Monday night meeting of this week - and all members of the Assembly were present - we went through the program for the week. There was no reference to this piece of legislation whatsoever. No-one said, "I have concerns about this legislation". The previous week various members had said, "We have concerns about" - - -
Mr Kaine: Mr Speaker, on a point of order; the Deputy Chief Minister is completely misrepresenting the purpose of the discussions on Monday night. The purpose of those discussions is to consider the Government's program for the week, not to debate the content of it.
MR SPEAKER: Mr Kaine, that is not a point of order.
Mr Kaine: It is, I suspect, and I would ask the Deputy Chief Minister to not misrepresent what that meeting was about. We did not meet to discuss the content of any Bill. The meetings will not take place in future if they are going to be misrepresented in this manner.
MR WHALAN: Mr Speaker, I am afraid that when we met the previous week it was for the purpose of discussing problems with legislation. What we found in the previous week was that there were some significant objections to the optometrists legislation and, as a result of those objections, the Government gave an undertaking to drop the optometrists legislation to the bottom of the business paper to allow us to discuss it further and run through the issues. No objection was raised on Monday night, no issues were raised, and members were asked specifically - - -
Mr Stevenson: That is not true. In both meetings I raised the LA(MS) Bill but that was pushed aside.
MR WHALAN: No, Dennis, you did not raise the LA(MS) Bill; you raised your own problems about consultancy. I remember you putting your hand up - just like that.
What happened then was that yesterday morning all of a sudden some problems with the payroll tax legislation were discovered. I put it to you, Mr Speaker, and members of the Assembly that it is too late. You have had it for weeks and weeks. Let us hear the arguments on the floor of the chamber. What Mr Collaery sought to do today was to deny the opportunity for members to present their points of view in relation to this legislation by applying the gag to the discussion.
Mr Collaery: On a point of order, Mr Speaker; I claim to have been misrepresented by the Deputy Chief Minister.
MR SPEAKER: This is not the time to bring that to notice. If there is a point of order, what is your point of order, Mr Collaery?
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