Page 2969 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 16 October 2007
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Mr Smyth: No. It is Assembly, committee, the government.
MR STANHOPE: Today is dedicated essentially to the business of government.
Mr Smyth: No. Read the blurb.
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, Mr Smyth!
MR STANHOPE: We reserve executive members’ day, with some exceptions. We allow Assembly business within our standing orders, in this case, a single item, a select committee report on working families. We have yet to get to significant pieces of legislation. We have not addressed a major motion of executive business regarding Anti-Poverty Week and our commitment to addressing poverty within this community. We are yet to debate, and will not debate today, the Occupational Health and Safety Amendment Bill. We are yet to get to the Canberra Institute of Technology Amendment Bill. We will not get to those bills today. We will not debate them today, primarily, of course, because of the absurd stunt that was called this morning. Actually, this amazing notion of a want of competence in the Chief Minister—
Mr Smyth: I raise a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker.
MR STANHOPE: on a day that it had been agreed he would not be present—
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: Chief Minister—
Mr Smyth: If Mr Corbell is going to claim that comments have to be relevant to debate, so does the Chief Minister.
MR STANHOPE: a motion that consumed the first hour and a half of Assembly business—
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: Chief Minister, resume your seat. Mr Smyth has raised a point of order.
Mr Smyth: Mr Deputy Speaker, you upheld Mr Corbell’s point of order, and my point of order is on that basis. The Chief Minister has to debate the substantive motion, which is to suspend the standing orders. It is not a waffle or a trawl through the morning.
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: Thank you, Mr Smyth. Chief Minister, please stick to the relevance of Mr Corbell’s procedural motion.
MR STANHOPE: I am. The relevance of Mr Corbell’s motion is that it is essential that this Assembly respect the need of the government of the day to have its legislation debated, legislation that is important to the people of Australia and that the executive have the capacity to debate motions in relation to anti-poverty and our commitment to dealing with poverty within the ACT. The government needs to be able to debate and pass within the parliament—
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