Page 4320 - Week 13 - Thursday, 17 November 2005
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Cabinet-in-confidence documents—order to table
MR QUINLAN (Molonglo—Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development and Business, Minister for Tourism, Minister for Sport and Recreation, and Minister for Racing and Gaming) (3.55): I seek leave to move a motion related to the production of documents.
Leave granted.
MR QUINLAN: I move:
That:
(1) any non-executive Member of the Assembly holding or having access to cabinet-in-confidence documents or parts thereof without authorisation of the Cabinet Office table such documents by the close of business today; and
(2) notwithstanding anything contained in the standing orders, the document not be approved for publication nor distributed to Members, and upon presentation be returned to the Cabinet office by the Speaker.
I think the motion is self-explanatory. I will not bother the House with a lot of pious humbug; it is probably superfluous. I know that I am amongst noble people, so let us just say that it is a little bit of insurance. But it does mean that retention of such documents as referred to in the motion would render the particular member in contempt of the Assembly and, of course, open to appropriate consequence.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Domestic Animals (Cat Containment) Amendment Bill 2005
Debate resumed.
MR SESELJA (Molonglo) (3.56): I was talking to some students today and they were asking me about what I did. I was thinking about what we had ahead of us today and I was thinking, “Wow! What do I tell them?” I said; “Well, we are going to be doing some legislation on cats,” and they were all suitably impressed. It was all very impressive for them. They had made their first trip to the Assembly, they asked me what I was doing and I said; “We are talking about cats, putting microchips in them and stopping them from getting out.”
It is good to see that the Assembly is dealing with the big issues. People often do, unfortunately, talk about this place in a derogatory way, and I always argue against them. But, unfortunately, I do not think bills like this help our cause at all. I note that the Greens welcome this legislation, and that would be no surprise, because this is the sort of legislation that you would expect the Greens to support. In fact, one would suggest that this is the sort of legislation that the Greens would draft were they ever to get in government, and it calls to mind some of the other legislation or legislative measures that the Greens would bring in. I think at the last election it was something about more access
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