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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 6 Hansard (22 June) . . Page.. 1620 ..

MR OSBORNE: Mr Speaker, I seek leave to speak.

Leave granted.

MR OSBORNE Thank you, Mr Speaker and members. I find this whole debate interesting because I have had many discussions with both the Labor Party and the Government in the last few days about what to do in the next seven days. It is staggering how both sides seem to have changed tack somewhat on what they wanted to do. I had discussions with members of the Labor Party on Friday who were certain that they wanted to continue working through the week, and the Government wanted to have seven days off. I arrived at work this morning and ran straight into Mr Stanhope, and he now wants to adjourn for seven days and the Government wants to keep working through.

My initial reaction is to continue working, but I have looked at the standing orders. When you read standing order 81, I think the precedence that that talks about is on the day that the motion is actually moved. However, it would appear that what happened in this place in the years before I even came to Canberra, when these types of things were on the landscape every couple of months, was that the Assembly did rise. So, Mr Speaker, I will support Mr Stanhope's motion, but there is a condition.

I did listen to the arguments put forward by the Government. I will support them in their desire to fix up the mental health issues in relation to Mr Moore. I am also open to looking at some of the other issues that they claim need to be resolved before the 30th.

I will be supporting what Mr Stanhope is attempting to do. Apart from those small conditions, I think we do have a responsibility today at least to try to tidy up a number of things which are apolitical and which are not going to affect whoever is in government. I support the motion, although I did tell Mr Stanhope well before Labor announced to the world that they were going to move a no-confidence motion that I thought the fair thing to do was to wait for the Auditor-General. Mr Stanhope chose to go ahead with the motion. Good luck to him. I will not be supporting it because I will be waiting for the Auditor-General's report.

I understand that my colleague here, Mr Rugendyke, is seriously considering the issue, so, clearly, there is the potential for a change of government next week. I think we need to respect what has happened in the past. However, I agree that there is a responsibility on all of us to fix up some legislation, so I will support the Government to do that today.

MR MOORE (Minister for Health and Community Care): Mr Speaker, I seek leave to make a brief couple of comments.

Leave granted.

MR MOORE: Thank you, members. The first thing I would like to do is to read the section of the Self-Government Act that applies. Section 19 says:

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