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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 8 Hansard (26 August) . . Page.. 2387 ..


MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

After that meeting I did ask him to confirm with me that that would be the arrangement we would follow. He undertook to do so but did not do so. Mr Speaker, if this is the principle that the Leader of the Opposition brings to leading his Opposition, I dread to think what a government under that man would be like.

Mr Berry: Mr Speaker, Mr Humphries imputed that I lied to him; and he should be forced to withdraw.

MR SPEAKER: I do not believe that is the case. I think Mr Humphries just explained the circumstances. I do not think there was any imputation. There is no point of order.

Question resolved in the affirmative, with the concurrence of an absolute majority.

Motion of Want of Confidence

MS McRAE (2.43): I move:

That this Assembly has lost confidence in the Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning as a result of his management of the potential extension of tenure of leases in the ACT to 999 years.

My motion of no confidence in Mr Humphries is absolutely clear cut. It is not about the merits or otherwise of 999-year leases; it is about what a Minister told the Assembly and then what a Minister actually did. The case is based on four pieces of evidence. The first three are from Hansard. I will give page references so that members can check the whole debate and see what was said in full and not think that I am just quoting selectively to create a case. Members will see for themselves exactly what the Minister said and exactly what the Minister meant. My fourth piece of evidence, which I will table, is from Media Monitors. It relates to an interview on the ABC on 9 July. Mr Speaker, I seek leave to table that now; it may as well be part of the record.

Leave granted.

MS McRAE: Let us begin with my pieces of evidence. In February 1996 the Minister said:

Mr Speaker, one thing that I do think is appropriate is that whatever policy we adopt in this place should be determined for the ACT by the ACT Legislative Assembly, not by somebody else such as the Commonwealth Parliament. I welcome the proposal made in recent days to give the ACT Assembly the power to determine that question.

That is at page 485. In March 1996 the Minister said:

... one of the board of inquiry's central recommendations -

this, of course, was in response to the Stein report -


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