The new shadow attorney-general, Daryl Williams, QC, said yesterday that the republican debate had been without direction because the Government’s participation in it had been random.
Until the Government came up with an agenda he would not be launching into taking positions.
Mr Williams, a Perth barrister, makes the rare trip from candidate straight to the front bench. He will also assist the leader, Dr Hewson on constitutional affairs.
He said that that part of his appointment was a response to the republican issue.
“”People don’t know what the Government’s position is,” he said. Barry Jones wanted to curb the reserve powers; Alan Griffiths wanted to abolish the states and the Prime Minister, Paul Keating, had said the republic would be good for the economy. Others had proposed a president as a substitute Governor-General and others wanted an executive president or to abolish the federal system.
“”Until the Government, as a proponent of the issue, says what the agenda is, we cannot do much,” he said.
Dr Hewson had asked: what do you mean by it?
“”I don’t think Dr Hewson will be leaping until the Labor Party tells us their agenda,” he said.
He acknowledged there had been a gradual change in opinion, but it was not a groundswell.
“”The subject need not be rushed into,” he said.
He was deliberately cautious because he had not sat in Parliament yet and “”had a lot to learn on all fronts”.
“”I will not be trying to make waves,” he said.
On the Mabo decision, he said he would not comment now because it involved other portfolio areas.
On corporations law, he said there had been too much change recently, especially on regulations dealing with disclosure of information and the liability of directors and managers.
It took a long time for changes to work through and for meanings to be decided. Cases arising from the 1982 companies code were only now before the High Court.
Legislation was not always the best way to deal with matters. On directors liability he thought education might be a better way.
Before the election the previous shadow attorney-general, Peter Costello, was a severe critic of the voluminous amount of corporations law passed in the past couple of years and vowed to streamline it.
Mr Williams is a graduate of the University of Western Australia and Oxford. His legal practice has been more in tax and commercial law than constitutional.
Mr Williams, 51, has had an active role in legal bodies in Western Australia and nationally. He was president of the Law Council of Australia from 1986-1987 and before that president of the Law Society of Western Australia and he has been on the Western Australian Law Reform Commission from 1982-86, a part-time position.
He was legal adviser to the Asian Development Bank in Manila for four years from 1971. His legal reputation is one of meticulous attention to detail of a brief rather than inventive legal flair.