Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 3 Hansard (7 March) . . Page.. 576 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

Mr Speaker, this has been a very ordinary period in the process of self-government in the Territory. Those historic parliamentary building blocks have been ignored by an arrogant and secretive conservative government hell-bent on keeping their embarrassing decisions a secret. This has been a dreadful period for self-government. I see that there are some young people in the audience who one day will be voting, although I do not think they are paying that much attention. Here we have a situation where this Government has been found out for secrecy. They are spending your money, people in the audience. They are spending your money secretly and they have spent it illegally, according to the best legal advice that this Assembly could get. Take this one home: They spent it illegally then kept it a secret. Mr Speaker, a whole range of hypocrisy has been exposed in relation to Mr Moore's contribution to this.

Mr Smyth: And you are the shining example of it, Mr Berry, the glowing example.

MR BERRY: I hear Mr Smyth intervening. He has not said, "Labor stands for nothing", or, "You can't have it both ways", yet. We will get that later, perhaps. Mr Speaker, I look forward to the Government's response to this important report from the committee which Mr Osborne chairs and I look forward to actions in the future which will fully expose the decisions made in this Assembly. For example, when a decision is made in the Assembly, unlike the VITAB arrangement where no decision was made, the Government is supposed to respond. Ms Carnell has shown that she was confident of her support in this place and she failed to produce the documents. I think, Mr Speaker, that that was just sheer arrogance. She winged it and got away with it. That is a reflection on all of us.

MR KAINE: Mr Speaker, I must say that - - -

MR SPEAKER: Do you ask for leave to speak?

MR KAINE: Yes, I seek leave to speak.

MR SPEAKER: This would have to be the longest debate on a Standing Committee on Justice and Community Safety scrutiny of Bills report that I have ever experienced.

MR KAINE: I was about to make that same observation, Mr Speaker.

Leave granted.

MR KAINE: I will try to be brief. I recall that not long ago, as a member of the committee, I attempted to get up and make a short comment on one of our reports and found that I had to seek leave to do so, even as a member of the committee, which rather surprised me.

Mr Speaker, it is not so much the fact that this subject has excited a little bit of discussion that troubles me; it is the nature of the discussion that troubles me. Governments of both persuasions in recent years across Australia have attempted to use the commercial-in-confidence label more and more in order to keep information under the table and not have it made public. That has been a matter of concern, I think, to

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .