Page 4913 - Week 17 - Tuesday, 11 December 1990
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School Closures - Legal Assistance
MS MAHER: My question is to Mr Collaery, as Attorney-General. Could the Attorney-General inform the house whether a decision has been made on granting legal assistance for the challenge to school closures?
MR COLLAERY: I thank Ms Maher for her question. Mr Speaker, this is a very complex and difficult issue. As members will recall, there was an approach for legal assistance at the beginning of the process. Interposed in the process was the Hudson inquiry. After the Hudson inquiry and after the Government had announced its decision on the school closures issue the matter came forward for full examination, and it came forward for examination in the context of Mr Hudson's recommendations and the findings that the Government had made.
The question of legal assistance, as it is called, is different from the question of legal aid. Legal aid is administered elsewhere in the Territory, and it is the subject of an Attorney granting a special fund to enable litigants to - - -
Mr Moore: On a point of order, Mr Speaker: on a number of occasions Mr Collaery has drawn attention to issues that are before the courts, and it seems to me that a comment that I believe he is about to make would fit into the same category. Mr Speaker, he has also drawn attention recently to where I have come between - - -
MR SPEAKER: Order! I believe that you have made your point of order.
Mr Moore: No, there is a second part, Mr Speaker, and that is to do with the relationship between one attorney in a case and the solicitors. There has certainly been no comment from - - -
MR SPEAKER: Order! Thank you for your observation, Mr Moore. Mr Collaery, please be warned.
MR COLLAERY: I beg your pardon, Mr Speaker?
MR SPEAKER: Please be warned.
MR COLLAERY: Warned of what?
MR SPEAKER: Of the possibility of your getting into a legal debate, but I am sure that you do not need to be.
MR COLLAERY: Mr Speaker, you are not using that in the context of the standing orders; you are cautioning me about trespassing into the sub judice rule. We all need that caution occasionally. Thank you, Mr Speaker.
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