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Business of the House

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Speakers - Whelan Mr Paul; O'Doherty Mr Stephen
Business - Suspension of Orders


    BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE
Page: 6921
    Bills: Suspension of Standing and Sessional Orders

    Mr WHELAN (Strathfield—Minister for Police) [1.04 p.m.]: I move:
        That standing and sessional orders be suspended to allow resumption of the adjourned second reading debate and passage through all stages of the following bills at this sitting:

        Industrial Relations Amendment Bill
        Intergovernmental Agreement Implementation (GST) Bill
        Public Authorities (Financial Arrangements) Amendment Bill
        Workplace Injury Management and Workers Compensation Amendment (Private Insurance) Bill

    This motion is necessary to enable the bills to be debated by the Legislative Council. I acknowledge the rightful claim made by the Opposition that these bills are being pushed through the House, but it is necessary for them to be dealt with in the upper House. I have tried to ameliorate the position as much as possible by giving as many briefings as possible to the Opposition. I understand the principal concern of members of the Opposition but I ask them take my comments into consideration.

    Mr O'DOHERTY (Hornsby) [1.05 p.m.]: I appreciate the acknowledgement by the Leader of the House of the Opposition's concerns. He has been in exactly the same position on many occasions. However, the Opposition does not know from one minute to the next what the Government's program is. Today there has been considerable debate and discussion behind the Speaker's chair about the program. I thank the Leader of the House for acknowledging the point I made that a number of the bills that will be rammed through the House this afternoon by virtue of this motion are extremely important. In addition, the second reading speeches were delivered in this Chamber only yesterday. The shadow Treasurer could get a printed copy of the bill relating to the GST only this morning because it was not available yesterday. These are matters of extreme importance to the State of New South Wales and to its people.

    In relation to workers compensation, the Government is trying to avoid embarrassment because it promised to reform the workers compensation system, bring real savings to employers and stop the knock-on effect of jobs in New South Wales by private underwriting. The so-called Mr Fix-It of the Australian Labor Party—and he will probably be the Federal President because he will make sure he has the numbers—has not been able to fix workers compensation and the workers and employers of New South Wales are suffering. The Government wants to ram the bill through this House so it will not suffer embarrassment when it is properly scrutinised by the people's House. The Opposition acknowledges that there will be a debate in the Legislative Council, but that is not the same as having the people's House debate the matter fully, as it ought to. People listening to or reading the record of this debate should understand that the standing orders provide that when the Government introduces a bill it comes back before the House for debate in five days, not five hours.

    The Opposition objects in principle to this suspension. The Parliament has sat 21 days this year and during that time there have been at least 45 motions to suspend standing and sessional orders. The Premier's press secretary, Walt Secord, is in the public gallery and he seems surprised, but those figures are correct. Under this Government the House is being governed by suspension motions. The Government has used motions to suspend standing and sessional orders to cover up all of its mistakes and inefficiencies in dealing with bills. The number of suspension motions demonstrates the arrogance of the Government and the degree of contempt with which it treats the people's House, a place where the people's representatives can say, "This is what my constituents are concerned about in relation to these matters."

    The Opposition also has another concern, that is, that the Government will cancel tomorrow's scheduled sitting and the sitting scheduled for the week of 20 June through to 23 June. I seek an assurance from the Leader of the House. He is not listening at the moment, so I will pause to see if he turns around. The record will show that he was not listening. I would like the Government to provide us with an assurance now that it will not cancel the five sitting days that are set down for this session. I do not want to interrupt the Leader of the House. I am not being rude; I am merely seeking an assurance from the Leader of the House that he will not cancel the five sitting days scheduled for the rest of this session.

    Mr Whelan: No. Why?

    Mr O'DOHERTY: Hansard will record the response of the Leader of the House.

    Mr Whelan: We will also sit on 20, 21, 22 and 23 June.

    Mr O'DOHERTY: And also tomorrow.

    Mr Whelan: Tomorrow might well be postponed; it depends upon the passage of business.

    Mr O'DOHERTY: We have the dairy debate, important matters to do with workers compensation, industrial relations and GST on the program and the Government is already starting to cancel them. We do not want debate to be guillotined, we do not want matters to be rammed through the Parliament, and we do not want honourable members to be gagged. That is a gag on their electorates. Therefore, I move:
        That the motion be amended by the addition of the following paragraph:

        (2) Standing orders 96 and 66 shall not apply to the debates on the bills.

    If the Government is fair dinkum about allowing debate to occur, it will agree to my amendments. If it does not agree, it will be a forewarning that the Government intends to do what it has done at the end of every parliamentary session since its election in 1995: use the gag and the guillotine. The Government will ram through business, cancel sitting days and deny natural justice and democracy in the people's House to the people of New South Wales.

    Mr Whelan: This amendment makes no sense. The Parliament will sit on June 20, 21, 22 and 23. That is the schedule and the dates have already been announced. I cannot understand the objective of this amendment.

    Mr O'Doherty: To stop you from gagging debate.

    Mr Whelan: I understand that the honourable member could take that principled position. However, the Parliament will sit on June 20, 21, 22 and 23. I do not know what purpose the amendment serves other than to confirm both what I have just said and the schedule that has been released publicly.

    Mr ACTING-SPEAKER (Mr Mills): Order! The Leader of the House is out of order. He has no right of reply.

    Question—That the amendment be agreed to—put.

    Division called for.

    Mr O'Doherty: I seek leave of the House to delay this division by prior agreement with the Government.

    Mr ACTING-SPEAKER: Order! The effect of postponing the division will be that the orders of the day—

    Mr O'Doherty: We do not want to delay the business program; we simply want to make our point. The Government would clearly vote against the amendment, which we support. However, in the interests of not delaying the processes about which I have just spoken, we will take a vote on the voices and not call a division so that the business of the House can proceed.

    Division called off.

    Amendment negatived.

    Motion agreed to.


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