Page 4624 - Week 14 - Thursday, 24 November 2005

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relevant—is that the manager of government business failed to get the blue sheet right for the second day in sequence.

Mr Corbell: Point of order, Mr Speaker: I do not understand how the issue of what is in the daily program has anything to do with whether standing orders should be suspended. That is the question that the opposition are opposing in this house. They should be made relevant.

MR SPEAKER: Can you come back to the subject now?

MRS DUNNE: The opposition opposes the suspension of standing orders to sheet home the message that this government needs to be cooperative. It needs to rely on cooperation and not depend on the failure of—

MR SPEAKER: Resume your seat, Mrs Dunne.

MR STANHOPE (Ginninderra—Chief Minister, Attorney-General, Minister for the Environment and Minister for Arts, Heritage and Indigenous Affairs) (3.53), in reply: I wish to address the motion to suspend standing orders. I would like to take the opportunity to endorse everything that my colleague has said. It is quite remarkable. It is the first time I can recall in my time in this place that an opposition has not wanted to be provided with information.

If the motion does not succeed, if the standing orders are not suspended, I will be prevented from providing information in this place, for the information of the opposition, certainly, for the information of all other members of the Assembly and, through the processes of the Assembly, for the media and the people of Canberra.

It is important that this motion succeed. It is quite remarkable that today the Leader of the Opposition has twice sought to deny me the opportunity to provide, for the information of the members of the Assembly and, through the Assembly, the people of Canberra, vital information about the administration of the Australian Capital Territory. It is remarkable. We have an opposition that is now frightened of work, a lazy opposition, an opposition that does not want to be informed, an opposition that does not want the Chief Minister of the territory, the leader of the government in the ACT, to provide it and, through it, the people of the Australian Capital Territory, with vital information about the management, administration and governance of the territory.

I cannot recall a single instance in my eight years in this place of an opposition not wanting to be informed, not wanting to be provided with reports prepared by the government for the information of the Assembly and for the people of the Australian Capital Territory. I cannot remember a single instance of an opposition refusing to allow the people of the territory access to government reports.

What is this is a response to? What is the motivation? The motivation, of course, is a disinclination by the opposition to work. We saw it this morning. We see it again now. The point was well put by Mr Gentleman this morning, scathingly put, that Mr Seselja does not like to work, and we saw the nonsense yesterday in relation to that. Mr Seselja has displayed clearly his aversion to work. He does not like work. He does not want to


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