Page 34 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 13 February 1990
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
additional source of expert advice in the matters in which they are specially interested. I do not need to enumerate them, but I will.
Mrs Nolan has a special interest in business, and she advises the Minister accordingly. Mr Jensen has a special interest in planning and the environment, and he advises me accordingly. Dr Kinloch has a special interest in education, and he advises Mr Humphries. Ms Maher has a special interest in people with disabilities and the status of women and such matters, and she advises me on those. Mr Stefaniak has a special interest in sport and recreation, and he advises his Minister on those.
In order to address specific questions raised by the Opposition in its MPI, I would like to run through them briefly. The first concerned the role. I have defined their role, Mr Speaker, unequivocally; it is in writing. They have a non-executive role. Despite the Leader of the Opposition's ranting and raving about the involvement of these people in the business of government, they have no executive role. I cannot be clearer than that. If she cannot hear, or if she cannot understand, she has a problem.
There is no additional cost to the Government in having the additional assistance and advice from these Executive Deputies. They occupy the same offices that they occupied before the Government changed; they will occupy similar offices on the fifth floor when they move up there. Even if we were inclined to remunerate them for the work that they do - and I made it clear from the outset that they would not be remunerated - under the enabling legislation they cannot be remunerated. So to prattle on about requests for increased salaries and the like is sheer rubbish. It cannot be done, and it is not the intention of the Government to do it. Again I cannot be clearer. They have no relationship to the Executive except to assist and advise the members of it.
Mr Wood: They don't sit in Cabinet?
MR KAINE: Let us be clear about that. They do not sit in Cabinet.
Mr Wood: They sit outside?
MR KAINE: You used to sit in Cabinet, so we could ask questions about that, I presume. These are simply matters that were mentioned in the matter of public importance put forward by the Leader of the Opposition.
The next is their relationship to the legislature. They are members of it, and that is their relationship to it. They just happen to belong to parties that are in government. In every parliament there are members who are not members of the Executive, not members of the Cabinet, but who are members of government parties. The Executive
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .