Page 674 - Week 02 - Thursday, 21 February 1991
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we have previously heard from Government spokespersons - will be available to be before this committee for its April reporting date?
Mr Kaine: I am assured that it will be available two weeks from now. That is the best that I can tell you.
MR CONNOLLY: Mr Speaker, the Chief Minister assures the house that he has been assured that the revised single Bill will be available in two weeks. I would dip my lid to the Law Office if they are able to do that. It would be a remarkable achievement that would be deserving of praise from all members; but I think we will have to wait two weeks to see what happens. The point that Mr Moore makes is vital. You are setting up a committee to look at important legislation, but we do not yet have the final form of the legislation that the committee is to look at.
The principal Government argument in this debate has again been a tirade at the Labor Party in relation to its attitude to Executive Deputies. The Chief Minister again had apoplexy over clause (6), where it is said that:
The Presiding Member shall not be an executive deputy ...
He said that this was an interference with the independence of committees and the Assembly was attempting to dictate standards to committees. They again draw some sort of red herring about the position of the Leader of the Opposition on the Public Accounts Committee. They seem to suggest that this principle of independence and bias that the Opposition has repeatedly raised means that a politician who has expressed himself or herself on a matter may never participate as chair of a committee. That would be patently absurd because no politician, after a period of time, would not have expressed himself or herself on some subject that would come before the committee. So the system would be unworkable.
The principle of bias that we repeatedly return to goes to a person who is seen by the community as part of the executive government chairing the committee in that area of executive government responsibility. As an example of the community's understanding of what Executive Deputies do, I just look again at one of the standard form invitations that Mr Jensen issues to members of the public. It says:
Mr Norm Jensen, Executive Deputy Assisting the Minister for Finance and Urban Services, on Conservation, Heritage and Transport ...
It is an invitation to a launch of a Government project in that area of portfolio responsibility. So the public is seeing Mr Jensen as Executive Deputy launching a Government program in that portfolio area. The clear impression that the community has of this absurd title "Executive Deputy" is that the person who holds that job has a form of responsibility for that area.
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