Page 918 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 25 July 1989
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
of the costs", to mean - and I say this on the record in terms of the extrinsic value available to someone interpreting this in the future - a document identifying the costs which the Minister estimates will be incurred. It is not suggested, the Rally presumes, that the Minister be a clairvoyant and work out what all the individual possible costs would be, in itemised form, of carrying out or giving effect to the Act, such as the use of cars to go out and inspect premises, the amount of petrol consumed and all the rest.
The words "itemising each of", the Rally believes, could be better served by a document identifying the costs, but it is up to the mover of this amendment to decide whether that is appropriate. As for paragraph (b), Mr Speaker, it is proper, given the experience with the preschool fee, that a Minister puts his or her mind to the amount that could prospectively be gained out of establishing a new fee regime, to be administered, obviously, by more public servants.
MR BERRY (Minister for Community Services and Health) (9.59): Mr Speaker, I rise just to draw to the attention of members, who will shortly vote on this amendment, an issue, and I do it with some trepidation because I do not want to tangle with those on the other side who describe themselves as learned colleagues. In the first place Mr Moore moved, and successfully had included, an amendment which required an annual report to be submitted to the Assembly, which, of course, one would expect to deal with costs and so on and the activities of the organisation structured under the legislation. Then Mr Humphries moved to include a further new reporting mechanism about fees and costs. It strikes me that in both of those reports there will be an element describing the costs of the double-up on reporting processes required under the legislation.
A member: They will have to itemise the costs of itemising the costs!
MR BERRY: Indeed. It just seems to be doubling up on the reporting process. One can accept that there is a need for reporting, but even in the interests of open government there is a limit to the amount of reporting one needs in order to have it properly found to be open.
MR HUMPHRIES (10.01): Mr Speaker, I do not know that this is entirely regular and, if it is not, I seek leave to do it, but I indicated that I would make a small amendment to this clause as it appears printed, and I would also like to make a couple of other amendments at the same time, one of which I think will please the Government. In the third line of the amendment I propose to delete the word "also"; I understand it is redundant in the circumstances. The next two paragraphs should be numbered, to be consistent, (a) and (b), not (i) and (ii), and I will make those amendments.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .