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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 4 Hansard (27 March) . . Page.. 920 ..

Mr Moore: You do the same now.

MR SPEAKER: Order! There are no interjections, thank you very much, Mr Wood.

Mr Moore: Look at the other side.

MR WOOD: We should each, Mr Moore, through you, Mr Speaker, look not just at what the other side does but what we do.

Mr Moore: I did it in my speech. You do it now.

MR WOOD: You are so noble, Mr Moore. You are so much finer than anybody else in this place, I acknowledge.

MR SPEAKER: Order, please, otherwise I will have to adjourn this.

MR WOOD: I am giving the balance, Mr Speaker, to what Mr Humphries said this morning. I am giving that balance. He did not mention the behaviour of the Liberals at this time. Question time is a feisty time. We expect a degree of feistiness. There is someone here in this chamber who has had a recent example of how the New South Wales parliament operates. Well, we do not want to go, please, to that level. I think we would be pretty quiet in comparison.

Yes, the opposition is feisty. You are going to expect us to be feisty if Mr Humphries thinks he can get up for long periods and slag off at us. If he thinks he can do that, what does he expect us to do? Sit down here and nod sagely at what he says? Of course not. We are not going to do that. If Mr Humphries thinks he can go on and on and on indefinitely without answering the question, or Mr Moore or anybody else, are we going to sit here and nod politely? We make some noise about it. If question time is to improve, both sides have to take a role in that. There is no question about that. I think it can be done. I think it can be done because, Mr Speaker, we do want to make life easier for you.

But let's get back to the confidence motion. The problems we have mostly relate to question time. This Assembly works pretty well. One of the other troubles that Mr Speaker has is that members move around and talk to each other and organise the way this place goes. Mr Moore can come across and talk to Mr Berry. Other members are talking all the time, to Mr Speaker's distraction. But this Assembly works pretty well.

It is in the public domain of question time that the difficulties arise, and I think we can attend to that. I think all sides can attend to that. But I caution Mr Humphries. He should not think that right is on his side, and wrong is on this side, because that is not the case. He has as much responsibility in improving what happens at question time as people on this side. Maybe there are some agreements to be made about the way these things are done. Maybe there are some agreements needed. Amendments to standing orders of the type proposed today will not do that. It is simply by talking to each other and coming to some understanding about how things are done that things can improve, and Mr Speaker's task in this place will be a little easier. I think we can do that. Perhaps it has not been done in the entire 11 years of this Assembly, but there are certainly ways of improving things, and all members bear a responsibility in that.

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