Page 448 - Week 02 - Thursday, 22 February 1990
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concert to implement most of the 23 recommendations of the report. I have one somewhat dissenting comment on page 34 of the report which I ask all members of the Assembly to consider.
There may be some comments in what I am about to say which may be regarded as contentious; I offer them, I hope, positively and constructively. Again, I wish to stress the central role played in this Assembly by our committees. It has been my experience on this committee, as on other committees, that whether they are from the Labor Party, the Liberal Party, the independents group, the Abolish Self Government party or the Residents Rally, members of committees treat the concerns of committees in a responsible and essentially non-partisan way.
We are on these committees as representatives of our various groupings or parties to be sure, but we are also there - and I want to stress this - in keeping with one of the central Burkeian traditions of our form of parliamentary government. We are there as individual representatives who have the task of listening as impartially as possible to witnesses and to reading as carefully and objectively as possible the evidence presented as written submissions. Therefore, as members of the committee we act with that hat on, not another hat.
Indeed, to carry this matter further, given the small size of this Assembly I cannot myself see any sound, solid and convincing reasons why Ministers should not also be on committees. There are only 17 of us and we need to share the very considerable and mounting workload which is increasingly eating into weekends and lunchtimes and late at night sessions after the Assembly has formally risen. I think we will all suffer from burnout if we go on the way we are going. I recognise the strength of one of the reasons given for not involving the Ministers, that is the question of possible conflict of interests, but that is a matter for each individual to determine. Party loyalties should be put second to loyalties to the proper committee work of the Assembly on behalf of the people of Canberra. From my observation of what goes on in this chamber I am in no doubt that the solid work of government, including the investigation of a wide range of concerns, is just as effectively represented on our many - perhaps too many - committees as on the floor of the Assembly.
On the matter of public behaviour I endorse most of the comments already given by our hardworking, thoughtful and invariably wise chairman, Bill Wood; and Robyn Nolan has said the same. We hope that the Labor Party will agree to continue to have him represent them on this committee. He has helped to forge a good working group which tries to deal effectively and pragmatically with each issue which comes before us.
Members: Hear, hear.
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