Page 517 - Week 02 - Thursday, 22 February 1990
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as easy to walk on to the fifth floor as it is to walk on to the first floor. I think relationships have developed over the year - or almost the year - that we have been here, and they will inevitably change when people are rather more isolated on the fifth floor.
I suspect this was a move that was proposed - and shortly to be made - without any real consideration. I do not think people sat down and thought through all the ramifications. I suspect it was thought convenient to have people in the Alliance group together in one place, and I do not think any other consideration was given to it. It is probably too late now to reverse the procedure. I did think of talking to people and griping about it earlier, but I did not, because I considered that it was inevitable, even at that earlier stage. I think the Government ought to give some thought to it. I do not believe it is a desirable way to go, and perhaps in future debates I will talk about what I see as the parliamentary aspects of it. At the personal level I am sorry it is happening.
MR KAINE (Chief Minister) (5.03): Much has been made by the Opposition on this question of the move of the non-Executive members of the Alliance Government to the fifth floor, and since Mr Wood has raised it again in the debate - and I accept his assurance that he is not being political - it seems to me that perhaps I should put the matter in some sort of perspective.
I should make the point quite strongly, Mr Speaker, that the move of the non-Executive members to the fifth floor is not by decision of the Executive. The move of the non-Executive members to the fifth floor is at the request of the non-Executive members. I did not issue an edict, nor did any other Minister, that these people were to move. But they themselves put an argument that in their view they would work better with the Executive members of the Government if they and their staff were located on the fifth floor. So there is no conspiracy, no directive, from the Government that this should occur. The people concerned put forward the proposition and argued the case that they felt they would do their jobs better.
I want to lay to rest for once and for all the apparent belief, on the part of some members in the Opposition, that this is by Government decree, or Executive decree. It simply is not. There is nothing sinister about it. It is not the wish of the Government, or the Executive, that we separate ourselves from the administration. It is not our wish that we separate ourselves from the members of the Opposition. We are after all, as I said earlier in the day, in the same building. There is a lift that runs between the floors. There is a stairwell that runs up from one floor to the other. There are telephones. This will in no way limit the communication between members of the Assembly.
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