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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 3 Hansard (8 April) . . Page.. 727 ..

Mr Corbell: I would like to, but I am not quite sure whether it is appropriate to do so. I might need to get some advice from the Clerk as to whether or not it is appropriate to do so.

Mr Berry: Mr Speaker, I raise a point of order. It seems highly irregular to have this sort of break in debate while a member takes advice. If Mr Kaine does not have the letter, he does not have it. He has posed the question. It is up to the member to consider it.

Mr Kaine: I would like to speak to that point of order, Mr Speaker, if there is one. The member having referred to it, I think I am entitled to ask him to table it.

MR SPEAKER: As Mr Moore has frequently said, the Assembly can do whatever it likes.

Mr Corbell: Mr Speaker, I was hoping that I would be able to speak to what it has been suggested is not a point of order. The questions in question time today related to evidence presented by Mr David Marshall to the Assembly's Economic Development and Tourism Committee. That evidence was authorised for publication. That is the information which was drawn on for the questions at question time today. I understand that Mr Marshall has also provided to committee members a letter which backs up the evidence he presented to the committee. However, that letter was presented to the committee after the committee had finished meeting. It was presented subsequent to his appearance, on a request of the committee chair, Mr Hird; but that letter was not authorised for publication by the committee. As such, it would seem to me that until the committee agrees to its publication it is inappropriate for me to table that document.

Mr Kaine: Mr Speaker, do I understand that the member has made reference to, and quoted in this place from, a document that is an in-confidence document?

Mr Berry: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. This matter is not up for debate. There is nothing before the house, Mr Speaker - no question, no debate.

MR CORBELL: Mr Speaker, with your indulgence, I am very happy to table the document if the Assembly committee authorises it for publication, but until such time as it does it would seem inappropriate to do so.

Mr Humphries: Why did you raise it today, then?

MR CORBELL: The Minister asks why I raised it today. As I said, Mr Humphries, the question today was in relation to evidence which was authorised for publication. That evidence was presented verbally to the committee by Mr David Marshall, chief executive of Canberra Tourism, and is in a transcript provided to the committee and authorised for publication by the committee. Nothing in the question today related to the letter, which is outside the verbal evidence presented by Mr Marshall, and therefore it is quite inappropriate to ask questions about it.

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