Page 3355 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 18 September 1990
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Members interjected.
MR SPEAKER: Order!
MR HUMPHRIES: I think we will have to change the Hansard, Mr Speaker. If I get support from those opposite it proves I must be wrong, so I will change my position and I will support the motion and oppose the amendment. Is that right?
Mr Speaker, I draw the attention of members to standing order 235, which Mr Jensen drew our attention to a moment ago. It refers to the capacity of members of the Assembly who are not members of a committee to come on to that committee to ask questions, with the leave of the committee itself. Those opposite who claim that this is some gagging of Opposition members, some restriction on their capacity to grill the Government on its budget, would only need to see this to realise that it simply is not a possibility. The fact of life is that we have to do a great deal of work in this Assembly. It is entirely appropriate that committees like an Estimates Committee be set in place to do this kind of work, and it is not usual, and there is no precedent of any relevance - I believe - for making this committee a committee of the entire Assembly. The fact that one such instance has occurred before does not establish a precedent.
Mr Wood: You even worked under that precedent.
MR HUMPHRIES: I worked under the precedent because that was what the Assembly decided. The Assembly may decide something different tonight.
Mr Speaker, there is also an objection on the part of those opposite to the Government having a majority of the members on the committee. I think it is worth reflecting for a moment on the practice of the Labor Party in places other than the ACT Legislative Assembly, and it is worth reflecting on what will happen - God willing or God not willing - if the Labor Party ever wins a majority in this place. We have no doubt that, the first instant the Labor Party has a majority of members in this Assembly, it will insist on a majority on every committee the Assembly appoints and it will insist on the chairmanship of every committee this Assembly appoints. This is what the Labor Party does in almost every other place, in the case of almost every other committee in Australia.
I can only describe this approach by the Labor Party at this time as hypocrisy. It is a course of action that it chooses to run with now because it suits its purposes; but when the time comes that the Labor Party has a majority in this place - and let us hope that time is not imminent - those opposite will probably say, "Well, the Alliance Government appointed a majority of its members to committees; why should not we?". That is what they will
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