Page 5336 - Week 17 - Tuesday, 3 December 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
signing for members in these cases is a sound one, and in future I will not accept matters that have not been signed by the proposer.
MR COLLAERY: Mr Speaker, I wish to make a short personal explanation under standing order 46. I believe that I have been misrepresented.
MR SPEAKER: Please proceed.
MR COLLAERY: Mr Speaker, I attended at your suite of offices at precisely 8.30 this morning and I asked your staff whether the MPI had been lodged, because I was prepared to sign it. I had been delayed this morning and I had telephoned a staff member and asked her to sign it. Unfortunately, that staff member did not put "per" or "for", and some mischievous minds apparently have suggested that it is a forgery. I do not know who they are and Mr Berry has not revealed that. But I do not want to waste any more time.
If that is your ruling, Mr Speaker, of course we will abide by it; but there are difficulties in meeting the 8.30 am deadline, as you know. I wish it to be recorded that I was prepared at that hour to sign the MPI. The MPI was delivered by one of my staff to your staff, Mr Speaker, one of whom is a former staffer of mine and knew full well that it was not my signature on the document, I would suggest. So, I think it is much ado about nothing - a very petty, nasty comment, I believe, from the Labor opposition which typifies their approach.
LEGAL AFFAIRS - STANDING COMMITTEE
Report on Majority Verdicts by Juries in the ACT
MR STEFANIAK (10.38): Mr Speaker, I present the report of the Standing Committee on Legal Affairs on its inquiry into majority verdicts by juries in the Australian Capital Territory, together with extracts of the relevant minutes of proceedings. I move:
That the report be noted.
Mr Speaker, firstly, in relation to this report, I would like to thank the committee staff, especially Bill Symington and Vicki Salkin, who were great during the course of the preparation of this report. I would also like to thank the previous committee members, Mr Connolly and Mrs Nolan, and my two colleagues, Mr Collaery and Mrs Grassby.
Whilst the majority verdict part of the report did not lead to any unanimous recommendations from the committee, I think, nevertheless, that this is a very useful report. If nothing else, it is an excellent document which goes through the current state of the Australian law. One particular area, which I will come back to and which I
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .