Page 3870 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 16 October 1991
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The work will require a great deal of dedication. Those of us who are working on one or two or three committees already will find that the workload for this committee will be difficult. Other demands made on members at this time will make it particularly onerous.
I foreshadow an amendment to add a new paragraph (6): "The Committee may examine other related matters which it considers should be drawn to the attention of the Assembly". It is very important to understand that a committee looking into the issue could well come upon an issue that has not been raised. I point out that we are talking about bed numbers, and the amendment refers to related matters. If there are any other related matters, it is important that the committee have enough room to move in making recommendations.
Since the committee has such a short time before the reporting date - some six weeks, I think - it is quite clear that it cannot go into any huge dissertations on whether or not there should have been another hospital or something like that. That would be entirely inappropriate. However, my amendment makes good sense. I think such a provision should be an almost automatic inclusion for any select committee, perhaps with the exception of select committees established to look into specific legislation.
It will be difficult for the three members of this committee to get down to the task and do it. It is very important that the committee consist of no more than three members. In the committees I work on, those with three members are the ones that work the best. Those three members should come from as broad a spectrum as possible. I think the best result would be a Labor member, a Liberal member and one other. Because of the amount of work involved, I wonder whether Mrs Grassby will be able to put in the time, since she is the only Labor person available. One of the great disadvantages of having a minority government with only five members is that these tasks are very difficult.
Ms Follett: We are going to fix that.
MR MOORE: I suppose the only reply to that is, "Not at the rate you are going". However, I think you have a far better chance than Trevor Kaine's claim to eight members after the next election. We will all look back rather whimsically at the various claims we have made. Gary Humphries would like to up the ante a little for the Liberal Party. They think they will get nine. I admire his courage in making such a prediction. Mr Speaker, for those reasons, I support the establishment of the select committee.
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