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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 7 Hansard (24 June) . . Page.. 1926 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

The record remains that the Labor Party individually declined to take that offer up and Mr Whitecross demanded that all contact with the staff of the Labor Party be through his office. The fact of the matter is that those in this place who often bleat about lack of consultation ought to examine their own record on those matters before they lecture us on this side of the chamber.

MR SPEAKER: I would like to acknowledge the presence in the gallery of pupils from Ainslie Primary School who are doing an area of study called "Local Government". Welcome to your Assembly.

MS TUCKER (11.02): I want, first of all, to comment about the question of security. I am really concerned at how the Liberal Party, particularly, are presenting the process that occurred. As a member of the Administration and Procedure Committee, I am actually quite offended by the approach of the Liberal Party, because not only are they misrepresenting the processes that occurred within the committee but also their consequent behaviour, after the findings of that committee, was so disrespectful of the findings of an Assembly committee. I will deal with that first. Basically, what happened was that this committee came out, after deliberation, with a security arrangement. The attendants in this place and the people in the Secretariat had to basically take responsibility for ensuring that the process that was determined occurred.

What we found happening, from the Government, from the Executive even, was a very childlike response, which was, "We do not like this; so, we are not going to do it". That showed total disrespect for the people who work in this place, that is, the attendants, who felt it was their brief to take on the instructions that came out of the Administration and Procedure Committee and which were agreed to by a majority of members. I believe this shows that, as leaders, this group has shown total disrespect for workers in this place. I think you should be quite ashamed to have to admit to that, because you have a responsibility, particularly as the Executive and Government, to follow appropriate practices and show respect for employees in this place. Many times I saw people wandering around here, and I saw attendants wondering why those people were on their own. They would then have the responsibility of dealing with that person, and they would be told, "I was told to go on my own and not take any notice of this so-called security system". Well, that is great; thank you very much.

The other point is that I thought that in this place you would have more respect for what came out of a committee system. We asked the Liberal Party for feedback and consultation. The consultation process that Mr Humphries says was so lacking did involve requests for feedback. The Liberal Party did not write once to the Administration and Procedure Committee with a detailed - - -

Mr Humphries: We let our members make comments; we have members on the committee already.

MS TUCKER: There was a member on the committee, and we took his input, which basically was, "My party does not like this". Okay; we listened to that. That is not a lot to work with - "My party does not like this". We were inviting input and alternatives, which is how consultation works. But you did not bother to give that to the Administration and Procedure Committee. Like any committee, we had to consider the

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