Page 1924 - Week 06 - Thursday, 2 May 1991
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Planning Legislation
MR MOORE: Mr Speaker, my question is to the Chief Minister. Mr Kaine, can you indicate what experience of the leasehold system the firm Dunhill, Madden and Butler have, and why was their report given to the combined environment and planning committee at a time when the committee would not have an opportunity to question the members of that firm?
MR KAINE: Mr Speaker, as I said in an answer to a question yesterday on the same matter, the Government was not involved in the selection of that firm. It was done through the normal administrative processes. I do not know what its qualifications are, but I am satisfied that our officials went about the matter responsibly and found a firm that was competent. If anybody has any evidence that that firm was not competent, I wish they would put it on the table instead of simply implying that they are not competent.
As to the time that it was placed before the committee, my understanding is that it was placed before the committee as soon as it was available to the Government, as all documentation relating to the planning process has been placed before that committee. None of it has been withheld. All comments from the community and from all quarters have been placed before that committee. I presume that Mr Moore is an attending member of the committee. If he is, I commend him for that. If he is not attending the committee, then I think he has abdicated his right to ask any questions about what goes on in it.
MR MOORE: I have a supplementary question, Mr Speaker. If you want to see my contribution to that committee, Chief Minister, you only have to read the report, and I presume from your answer that you have not.
Mr Kaine: Is that a question? If it is, I will comment on it, if you like.
MR MOORE: You will have the opportunity. The supplementary question that I want to ask is: If you claim, as you just have, that all information that the Government had was provided directly to the committee, how do you define "directly", considering that two weeks before you provided the consolidated Bill you were in this chamber waving it around and saying, "I will not give it to anybody"? Were you attempting to mislead this house?
MR KAINE: What I demonstrated in the Assembly, Mr Speaker, was that I had a first draft of a Bill. I gave the committee a copy of that draft when I believed that it was in a reasonable condition for distribution. If Mr Moore, or anybody else, thinks I am going to hand out half-baked copies of documents just to satisfy his ego, he has another think coming.
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