Page 3669 - Week 12 - Thursday, 25 November 2021
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
double down on that, to work only 35 days next year and make sure that we do not work past dinner time and come back as we used to, after the expansion of the Assembly, we are not fulfilling the obligations that we had, the statements that were made and the intent of making sure that this Assembly can do more.
What I am saying is that we need to sit an extra day. A sitting week, as members would know, is three days. So when we say that we are sitting for 12 weeks, they are only three-day weeks. Why can we not sit for four? On those 12 sitting weeks, we would come back on the Friday, so we are talking about only 12 Fridays out of a year, and we would make sure that on those days—and I would be very happy for that to be incorporated into the standing orders—the Assembly focuses on the important municipal issues.
The Assembly would focus on the sorts of issues—and I was at the Weston Creek Community Council last night—that are discussed at community councils across this town and by residents associations that do an enormous amount of good work; but they are immensely frustrated. No matter whether you go to Gungahlin, Belconnen, Weston Creek or Woden—whichever community council or residents association you go to—they are often incredibly frustrated that the matters that are important to them, the local municipal issues, often are not paid the requisite attention by this place. In part, that is because we have other stuff to do; but in part, it is because we do not have enough time to deal with those matters because we have decided that we are only going to work in this place for 35 days a year.
Madam Speaker, I am a great fan of parliamentary sitting weeks. I think they are an important part of what we are elected to do. We are parliamentarians. As parliamentarians, our first responsibility, in my view, as local members, is to make sure that the needs of our community are met, that we are listening and that we are responding. By winding the sittings back to 35 days and saying that we will all knock off by dinner time means that we are not meeting those obligations.
The resolution that I am calling for would be an extension of the sitting days by 12. It is not a massive number of extra days to work when you are only working for 35 days in this place. On those days, we would deal with matters—and I would be very happy to work with admin and procedures to get it incorporated in the standing orders—like petitions and debates on petitions: important matters pertaining to the sorts of matters discussed at local community councils and residents associations.
I have presented this motion and discussed it with a number of community councils, and I am yet to talk to a community council that does not think it is a good idea. They are out there working as volunteers. They are raising these issues and they see us in this place. They want us to draw more attention to the matters that are important to them. Ms Lawder will be talking about mowing this afternoon. Indeed, at the community council last night, as members who were there will attest, that was a significant topic of conversation. They are the sorts of matters that our community councils, our residents associations and, indeed, the communities that they represent want to be addressed more substantively in this place. Members, let us bite the bullet; let us work an extra 12 days a year in this place which, at the end of the day, is our
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video