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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 1 Hansard (8 December) . . Page.. 3989 ..


MR SPEAKER: You do not have to be Sherlock Holmes in order to link the two comments. I uphold Mr Moore's point of order. I suggest you rephrase the question, Mr Quinlan.

Mr Berry: Mr Speaker, under what standing order do you order Mr Quinlan to withdraw?

Mr Moore: Standing order 117(b)(iv).

MR SPEAKER: Thank you. The standing orders state:

Questions shall not contain:

(i) statements of fact or names of persons unless they are strictly necessary to render the question intelligible and the facts can be authenticated;

Standing order 117 (d) states:

Questions shall not be asked which reflect on or are critical of the character or conduct of those persons whose conduct may only be challenged on a substantive motion, and notice must be given of questions critical of the character or conduct of other persons;

You can take your pick.

Mr Moore: His question is so far out of order, Mr Speaker, that I think we ought to move to the next question.

MR QUINLAN: Would you like me to rephrase the question, Mr Speaker?

MR SPEAKER: If you believe that you can do so to my satisfaction, yes.

MR QUINLAN: Recent media reports implied that the abysmal fiasco that is CanDeliver is a result of poor direction and management. Do you, Treasurer, agree with these reports? Do you agree that they were based on misinformation? Do you wish to attribute blame to the board and the direction of CanDeliver, whom I am trying to defend here, or do you wish to be selective, as some later media reports were, about the members of the board of CanDeliver who were at fault?

MR HUMPHRIES: I suppose we should all be grateful that the Labor Party has moved off attacking public servants and people outside the Assembly. That is of some temporary relief to people who work for the ACT community as public servants. But moving on to attacking other people does not necessarily indicate that any of those people will find much joy or much truth in what that Labor Party has to say.

Mr Speaker, I heard the comments that Mr Quinlan was referring to about poor direction and management. I interpreted those to be a criticism of the board of CanDeliver. I reject those criticisms. With any board charged with responsibility for a major


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