Page 2586 - Week 09 - Thursday, 16 September 2021

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identified and corrected. It is equally, if not more, important now in the current lockdown that emergency measures and other effects are accountable to public scrutiny, interrogation and debate by the Assembly.

A select committee is good for our community and it is good for our democracy. We, as legislators, owe it to every Canberran to make sure that every decision made in the name of the pandemic is one that is in the best interests of the very citizens that voted to give us the privilege of being their voice in the chamber. I commend my motion to the Assembly.

MR BRADDOCK (Yerrabi) (11.42): I move the following amendment that has been circulated in my name:

Omit paragraphs (2) to (6), substitute:

“(2) the committee be composed of:

(a) one Member to be nominated by the Government;

(b) one Member to be nominated by the Opposition; and

(c) one Member to be nominated by The Greens; to be notified in writing by each whip to the Speaker by close of business on 20 September 2021;

(3) an Opposition Member shall be elected chair of the committee by the committee;

(4) in conducting public hearings, the committee shall be mindful of the Public Health Emergency declaration, including that:

(a) all efforts are made to minimise the time witnesses are required to be present by scheduling designated hearing times, advising in advance which witnesses the committee wishes to call or topics that will be discussed, and other measures that minimise impact on essential government, non-government, business or other witness’s organisational resources;

(b) where a public hearing is scheduled requiring government ministers and/or officials, hearings are not held at the same time as National Cabinet, a meeting of the ACT Government Cabinet, or when another committee of the Assembly is holding hearings, or on a sitting day of the Assembly, and:

(i) these are to be held no more than once per fortnight for a maximum of two hours, with no directorate/agency or minister to appear for more than an hour; and

(ii) the committee must advise of the ministers, directorates and officers required and the committee’s intended lines of inquiry no less than one week prior;

(d) the above provisions only apply during the Public Health Emergency declaration; and

(e) the committee members endeavour to seek broad input from a range of community members and organisations into the COVID response;

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