Page 327 - Week 01 - Thursday, 12 February 2015
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Mr Hanson: Could we stop the clock, please?
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Stop the clock. Yes, Mrs Dunne.
MRS DUNNE: I did say at the beginning of my remarks that I was going to speak once to all of Mr Coe’s amendments, so my comments will be somewhat more broad ranging than just the taking away of rights in relation to the Conservator of Flora and Fauna.
Members interjecting—
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Members, this is not a debate. Mr Barr, Mr Coe and everybody else, this is not a debate across the room.
Members interjecting—
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Do we want to get this finished or not? I suggest we stop talking across the room. I will get some advice. Technically, Mr Corbell is correct. In the spirit of collegiality across the chamber, I will allow you to continue, but I would ask you to be extremely brief and get to the point so that we can get on with the rest of the clauses, Mrs Dunne.
MRS DUNNE: Madam Deputy Speaker, the point I was making is that this bill takes away rights in a way that the previous bill did not, because the previous bill had canvassed the ideas in the community. After the matter had been through the AAT and the Supreme Court and all of those issues had been resolved, it was agreed between the parties. Everybody in this place agreed except for Kerrie Tucker, who took the very principled position that even though the electorate had agreed, the matter had gone to the AAT, there had been an inquiry and there had already been one round of judicial review, she wanted the opportunity for more. She took a principled position, which is a bit of a departure from the current position taken by the Greens member in this place.
The other issue is that there has been no reference in any way of any matter relating to capital metro to a committee in this place, on the policy of the issue. There has been the project facilitation bill, which was one aspect of it, but there has not been a reference to any committee to take the pulse of the community about what the community thinks about this. Everyone has been very keen to talk about the recently tabled report on Latimer House, but you also have to read the recommendations of that report, which say that this Assembly should consider more often the referral of policy matters to policy-based committees before they are passed into legislation.
That is something we have not done in this Assembly and we have done it decreasingly over the years when this Labor government has been in control of the place. If they have the numbers, they do not want to hear from the ACT community. It is an act of cowardice and it means that what will be happening here through the facilitation of this legislation is that this project will be more easily ram raided through and the people of the ACT will have less opportunity to object. And they have had no opportunity to participate in the decision making on this. That is why this legislation should be opposed and the amendments from Mr Coe should be supported.
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