Page 387 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 21 February 1990
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MR HUMPHRIES: I would like him to get involved, but he is already involved. The fact is that the four members sitting over there - - -
Mr Whalan: Name them!
MR HUMPHRIES: Ms Follett, Mr Whalan and the other two members sitting behind them. Those people have not bothered to get involved with the committees of this Assembly in the last two and a half months. Apparently, they think that they can sit back and wait until some sort of assurance or undertaking comes from the Government about the way in which committee functions will be performed. We had no such undertaking when we got involved in the committees at the commencement of this Assembly.
What is more, over the last two months during this Assembly's summer recess important work was done which should have had some proper input from the ALP. That input did not eventuate, apparently because these four people over here - this Government in exile - believe that sitting on committees of the Assembly is beneath them and that they should be Ministers. The fact that they are not Ministers means they are not going to grace committees of this Assembly with their presence. The fact is that if they are serious about the committee work of this Assembly, they should get involved and show their bona fides in the first place.
As I said, these are matters for sensitive negotiation and they ought to be handled in a sensitive fashion. I do not believe that a public debate about financial arrangements between the ACT and the Commonwealth is appropriate at this time. It ought to occur in a sensitively-handled fashion and that will best occur through the process described in Mr Collaery's amendment. For example, I think that if it had been proposed some time ago that negotiations about the tendering for the casino were to be handled by a public committee rather than by private negotiation, there would have been howls of outrage from members of the ALP. This is a very similar arrangement. We must have a sensitive approach to this and it is best secured in the way described. It is a matter for government, not for Assembly committees.
MR MOORE (11.33): I find myself in a difficult position because, as Mr Humphries pointed out, the wording of the motion is that the Assembly call on the Government to establish a select committee. I think there is a simple solution to that - an amendment that removes the words "calls on the Government". The motion would then read that this Assembly establish a select committee empowered to negotiate and finalise the arrangements.
What we really require is a select committee and I think that that is quite appropriate. It is also appropriate for the Government to finalise the arrangements, while the select committee should make recommendations to it on how to finalise those arrangements.
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