Page 821 - Week 03 - Thursday, 14 April 1994
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I thought it rather important to add those words because it made it very clear, in italics and in very separate lettering, that this was my own personal view. Mind you, Madam Speaker, I must say that anybody reading it would realise that that was the case, and I think that is reasonable.
No doubt the issue of the preface will be debated in this Assembly. I hope that when we debate that issue - and I have no difficulty with that - we do not lose sight of the positive outcomes from this report. The part we are all agreed on - the report is a unanimous report - is that we do need a medical treatment Bill, and that Bill, I believe, is acceptable right across our community. No doubt that will be subject to debate in this house in the not too distant future.
Finally, I would like to take the opportunity to draw to the Assembly's attention the fact that this is the last report in which the secretary, Ron Owens, will play a role as he will be leaving the Assembly tomorrow. I have worked on a series of reports with Ron Owens and I must say that I have found him to be incredibly professional, well informed and capable. It is with some sorrow that I see him leaving the Assembly; at the same time, I understand his reasons for doing so. I think his contribution to this report and to a series of other controversial reports, including reports on prostitution and drugs, and his work on the Legal Affairs Committee and other committees have been significant, and I would like to ensure that that is on the record. With those few words, I commend this report to the Assembly.
MR LAMONT (Minister for Urban Services, Minister for Housing and Community Services, Minister for Industrial Relations and Minister for Sport) (10.55): I seek leave to present additional comments to the report of the Select Committee on Euthanasia and to move a motion in relation to the additional comments.
Leave granted.
MR LAMONT: I present additional comments to the report of the Select Committee on Euthanasia on the Voluntary and Natural Death Bill 1993 and I move:
That the additional comments be added to the Report of the Select Committee on Euthanasia and that the report and the additional comments be authorised for publication.
I understand that the Clerk does have copies of the additional comments for each member of the Assembly. I appreciate the comments by Mr Moore in relation to my own contribution to the consideration of issues by Assembly committees. I genuinely appreciate that sentiment. Although I have worked on only one committee with Mr Moore - - -
Mr Moore: And a difficult committee it was, of course.
MR LAMONT: It was a quite difficult committee, but I found it to be an experience, and one which I am the better for. I have, however, found it necessary to take this course of action because of what I believed was a difference in style in the way Assembly committees have worked. Up until yesterday I had been a member of five select and
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