Thank you very much.
I'm pleased to include myself in the circle of Ms. Duncan's colleagues. I appreciate her compliment to all of us. However, I want to say that I believe that she's missed a third way when she says either you can put the detail in the bill or you can leave all the detail to the cabinet. I believe she's missed the third way, which is that you can enact an intelligently and reasonably circumscribed ability for the government to legislate within confines set out by the legislature.
This is the point I recall Mr. Lee making so ably, that one shouldn't write a blank cheque. In a way, on the issue of accountability, it's almost as egregious to give the cabinet a blank cheque as it is to give the courts a blank cheque, which this bill certainly does in spades.
In both cases, in my view, it is up to the legislature to prescribe appropriate limits. This bill certainly does not prescribe appropriate limits to the authority of the courts. And in this particular case, ironically, it doesn't prescribe appropriate limits to the ability of the cabinet. So it's on that basis that I object. And although I guess I can't speak for Mr. Lee, I'm almost certain he would object too, if he were here, and I've known him for many, many years.
Thank you.
(Clause 27 agreed to: yeas 6; nays 5)