Page 3142 - Week 15 - Thursday, 14 December 1989
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
MR SPEAKER: Order! Chief Minister, you are debating the issue. That is not a point of order. Please address the question, Mr Whalan.
MR WHALAN: Mr Collaery has moved this motion to extend the date, and it is an important point to bear in mind that the appropriate person to have moved this motion would have been the chairperson of the committee, not Mr Collaery. That would then be evidence that it was the committee that was concerned - that it was a committee of this Assembly. But, clearly, this is Mr Collaery representing the intentions of the executive government to get a stranglehold on this Assembly. So what do we see as the picture? We see the ruthless use of the gag, the removal of the right to suspend standing orders, and now the strangulation of the committee system. We see the strangulation of the committee system by handing control of the committee system from this Assembly to the executive government on the fifth floor, and that is the fundamental issue which is involved.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
INDEPENDENT AUDIT TO DETERMINE ASSETS TRANSFER -
ORDER OF ASSEMBLY
MR COLLAERY (Deputy Chief Minister) (11.15), by leave: I move:
That paragraph (2) of the order of the Assembly, of 28 September 1989, relating to the independent audit to determine assets transferred to the Territory on self-government and the public debt associated with those assets, be amended by omitting "the first sitting day of 1990" and substituting "18 May 1990".
I might remind our colleagues in the house that the former Chief Minister, Ms Follett, announced on 22 November 1989 the establishment of an independent committee to inquire into the assets and public debt of the Territory. The committee comprises the chairperson, the Hon. Mr Justice Else-Mitchell, formerly chairman of the Commonwealth Grants Commission, and two members, Mr Ian Mackintosh, a practising accountant, and Dr Brian Galligan. The request for an extension of time comes on my advice from the committee. I endorse the request simply because this committee has obvious bipartisan support in its formation, and one hopes that we will not hear 15 minutes of prolonged discussion around a point that all parties agree on.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .