Page 1538 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 2 May 1990
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TRANSITION OF POLICE AND THE COURTS TO THE ACT
Discussion of Matter of Public Importance
MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER (Mr Jensen): I have received a letter from Mr Moore proposing that a matter of public importance be submitted to the Assembly for discussion, namely:
The inadequacy of the Alliance Government on the transition of the police and the courts to the ACT.
MR MOORE (3.25): Mr Speaker, yesterday at question time a question was asked, I believe, of the Chief Minister by Mr Connolly. It brought about a statement by Mr Collaery later that there was no dispute between him and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, and he tabled documents to prove that. At the time I interjected that we would not know what we were getting, but that is not a worry because I have a copy of them. After reading them I find that they identify the dispute that Mr Collaery was denying when he was using these documents to prove that there was no dispute.
His consultant's brief said that the Attorney-General has specifically directed the development of a unified court system as a model for reform and, later, that the consultant should, as appropriate, take account of literature including the New Zealand court system. That is part of a document that he tabled yesterday.
He also tabled an extract from a speech by Mr Justice Miles in the launching of Law Week 1990. The last sentence on the third page says:
I doubt very much whether New Zealand provides an appropriate model for a new judicial system in the ACT.
There is a dispute. I am not about to say that Mr Collaery was attempting to mislead the Assembly in this case. If members decide that is what they think, I am sure they could move a censure motion or whatever to that effect and deal with it in that way, although we know the numbers would be used to defeat it anyway.
I think that the most appropriate thing to draw to the attention of members here and members of the public about the transition of our police and court system, which has been the subject of so much media coverage in the last short while, is the total lack of consultation of this Government with the community, especially people who went to the polls in terms of consultation. The president of the Law Society of the ACT, Michael Phelps, said that they had not been consulted. He said:
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