Page 3134 - Week 15 - Thursday, 14 December 1989
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If we cannot have executive deputies to do the job today, if that is true today, it is true every day. The executive deputies cannot serve on committees. We will be anxious to know what Mr Kaine outlines as the role of executive deputies shortly. It may be that they have gone beyond the original claim and realised that they cannot have executive deputies - for example, Mr Humphries with health and, very clearly, Dr Kinloch with education and the arts. I wonder whether we will have this same format presented to us in a little while. It is obvious that in the haste in which all this was done and the long delay now - 10 or 11 days - without administrative arrangements, the Government has had severe difficulty in its thoughts about executive deputies.
But let me get back to the subject - the parliamentary accounts committee and its work. It worked well and I was very pleased with the work of Mr Kaine as chairman and with the composition of the committee. Let me tell you how the committee was constituted. There were, then, three opposition members - non-Government members - Mr Kaine, Mr Duby and Mr Jensen, and there was one Government representative. Some have told me that was a very good balance. The Government had the best of it. That was the structure. But what of the structure that we have heard about through the media - not through consultation, but through the media? What is the structure we are going to have foisted on us today? It is two Government members and one opposition member. What a complete reversal, adding to the points that my two leaders have made today. What a reversal! This Government is now taking everything unto itself.
We have all agreed that the committees worked extremely well and it was due to the way in which members participated and involved themselves in policy setting and decision making. Only in one case, perhaps - the occupational health and safety matter - did the committee come off the rails. What we are getting into now, of course, is executive committees or, if you like, Government committees. That is what we are getting into.
Mr Humphries: It is usual in most parliaments. It is usual to have Government majorities on most committees in other parliaments.
MR WOOD: But wait until you see how it works. I wonder whether the senior lawyer in the place fully understands how his Rally policy is going to work. It is proposed that executive deputies, members of the Government, members of the Cabinet - - -
Mr Humphries: No, they are not members of the Cabinet.
MR WOOD: They are to chair these committees.
Mr Humphries: They are not members of the Cabinet.
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