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NOES, 7 . . Page.. 1389 ..

MS FOLLETT: I totally support that convention, Mr Speaker, but the Minister stood and read word for word from that document. If it is not to be tabled I would appreciate a copy of it.

MR SPEAKER: The question is before the house.

MR HUMPHRIES (Attorney-General) (4.52): If I may speak to the matter that Ms Follett has raised, I would say it is within the competence of the house to move this motion and to carry it. However, it is a most unfortunate precedent. There has been an informal agreement in this place that members are entitled to read from briefs or speaking notes without having to table those notes. Where a member reads from, say, a letter or a document, that is another matter. Members would certainly expect to have to table that document if they use it on the floor of the house. This is a speaking note prepared for Mr Stefaniak in his office and he has read it in full. I think, as a matter of principle, it is undesirable to open that up for members to see generally. Members can annotate that or cross things off. That really is a matter for members to have to deal with on their own. We have not traditionally asked for those documents, and I would urge members not to now start doing that.

MS FOLLETT (Leader of the Opposition) (4.53), in reply: Mr Speaker, I totally support the convention that people's notes ought not to be tabled, and I always have supported that; but we have another convention, and that is that any statement by a Minister is circulated in this place. In my view, that was a statement by the Minister, and I ask that it be tabled.

MR SPEAKER: It is for the Assembly to decide. The question is that the motion be agreed to, and that is to table the document Mr Stefaniak read from, whatever it is.

Question put:

That the motion (Ms Follett’s) be agreed to.

The Assembly voted -

Question so resolved in the affirmative.

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