Page 3370 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 18 September 1990
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Therefore, Mr Speaker, it is quite appropriate, as it is in every other parliament where a government has a majority, for committees to have a majority of government members. It is as simple as that. I do not have a problem with that, Mr Speaker. It happens everywhere, except when there was a minority government like we had last year and, of course, they did not have the numbers. That is the difference between this year and last year. There will be no difference in the ability of those opposite to question the Ministers quite severely, and I am sure they will if they are prepared to turn up.
MS FOLLETT (Leader of the Opposition) (9.25): Mr Speaker, I was not going to speak in this debate, but I really feel I have to correct some of the glaring errors that Mr Jensen is seeking to inflict upon this Assembly. First of all, Mr Speaker, there is his most egregious misrepresentation in the matter of the collegiate government. I would like to state, yet again, for the record, that it is absolutely untrue to say that I refused to take part in a collegiate government. In fact, I was never invited to. So, let me put that on the record. I have said it before, and I will say it again: it is untrue.
Mr Speaker, the other thing that Mr Jensen has said that is equally untrue is that last year when we were in government we did not have the numbers to pull the sort of rort of a committee system that the present Government is pulling. Well, the fact of the matter is that on the floor of the Assembly - - -
Mr Kaine: The committee system in the House of Reps is a rort, is it, under a Labor Government?
MR SPEAKER: Order!
Mr Kaine: She used the word, Mr Speaker.
MR SPEAKER: Order! You will have a chance to speak on the matter. Please proceed, Ms Follett.
MS FOLLETT: Mr Speaker, the fact of the matter is that when we were in government we did have the numbers to shape the Estimates Committee as we wished. We had, in fact, not only our own five members but also the support at that time of the No Self Government members and, occasionally, of other members as well. We did have the numbers but we chose not to use them. We chose to opt for an open Estimates Committee, just as we had chosen to opt for open government. So Mr Jensen, again, is very selective in his memory there, very selective in his recollection of the events that took place.
Mr Speaker, I think that what we have heard from members opposite confirms absolutely, if any confirmation were needed, that Government members opposite are quite determined that the Assembly's committee system shall reflect the view of the Government rather than the view of
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