Page 876 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 27 March 1990
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numerous times I have enjoyed immensely working with Mr Wood on committees. I look forward to operating with him on committees in the future. I am sure that the similar sort of support and assistance that was provided to us as members of the committee by Mr Wood will be reciprocated to his colleagues in the Labor Party when they take their turn on committees in the future.
Mr Speaker, one of the early changes that was made to the structure of standing committees in those early days was the ability for those committees to initiate their own inquiries, provided that the Assembly was advised at the earliest opportunity. This was an important change and I suspect that it probably related to the nature of the Assembly at the time where you had a minority government facing a majority opposition series of groupings.
It is interesting to see that in the proposals in this recommendation and those that will come forward later this evening, there has been no proposal by the Government to change that very important aspect of the operation of the committee system - that is, standing committees initiating their own references. I think that that is a very important aspect of our committee operations and I am sure that it will continue in the future.
The committee of which I was a member took submissions from yourself, the Opposition and the Government and they were considered at the time at great length by the committee in its deliberations. These submissions included proposals for changes to the structure and areas of committee responsibilities and they are summarised in tables 1 and 2 that are attached to the report.
In particular let us look at the number and size. The various proposals that were put forward effectively decreased the number of proposed committees by one, but at the time committee members, of whom I was one, considered carefully the degree of workload on committees that already existed and the potential for increased workload in the future, once the new structure commenced.
For example, the Conservation, Heritage and Environment Committee has prepared two reports, one of which is a major report which was tabled in this Assembly last week. That committee took considerable evidence and travelled to various parts of Australia. The same committee also has two references still to report on to the Assembly. I understand that work is about to commence on those.
The Planning, Development and Infrastructure Committee, for example, has completed two reports. That committee has five references still outstanding. That, I would suggest, is indicative of the nature of the work of that committee in these changing times, particularly with regard to the legislation that has been put on the table in draft form by the current Government and also the proposals for the National Capital Plan and the Territory plan itself. At
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