Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

None . . Page.. 881 ..

In the past, we have listened to those opposite whinge and cry about having to deal with night sittings in this place - ordered night sittings, which are regular, which are on the notice paper, which can be planned for and for which staffing is arranged over a period of 12 months.

But now, all of a sudden, we see a situation where these people over here are not so concerned about all the excuses they made in the past. We go back to the issue of consultative and open government. We have a quick night sitting without telling anybody, because that makes sure that people cannot come along here and see the Government embarrassed. As I said before, if you were prepared to talk to the Opposition about an extra sitting period in the evening, we would be happy to go along with that, provided that there was a bit of notice to the community as well as to the members and our staff. Let us not forget our staff, who have been working all day, not being aware of what was going on here.

Mr De Domenico: So have ours.

MR BERRY: If you treat your staff that way, go for your life. You would expect that from Liberals. But we do not treat our staff that way, because of our background. This is a shabby piece of work. I am disappointed that Mr Moore would support it. I am even more disappointed that Mr Osborne would support it. Given our commitment to the local football club, I thought we could have been a bit more together on this. We did all right on Versailles, but more could have been achieved today.

Mr Osborne: You have a lot of supporters out there, Wayne. Do not upset them. Do not keep their No. 1 signing away. How can their gun player not be there?

MR BERRY: I can still remember the debate over the Tuesday night sittings. I will not go into that.

Mr Moore: No; because you would be embarrassed.

MR BERRY: No, I would not be embarrassed at all. If this had been planned and if there had not been some sort of wild collaboration with the Government, you might be free of embarrassment; but I think you have the problem, not I.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

Sitting suspended from 5.53 to 7.30 pm

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .