Page 4130 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 23 October 1991
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Committee, assisted by the secretary and a research assistant, have to consider and report to the Assembly on each one of these. That is a lot of research. Peter Wilenski, in an article entitled "Can parliament cope?" from Parliament & Bureaucracy, addresses the workload of members and their ability effectively to scrutinise administrations, suggesting that more committees are required, and this, of course, means more staff.
However, in the ACT it is a case of making do with what we have. We must consider an increase in the level of staff to enable members to carry out their duties, particularly in relation to committee work. I suggest that the proposal put forward by my colleague Mr Collaery provides for equality of service to members. In fact, it is interesting that the proposal put forward would ensure that each member has exactly the same resources. Those groups or organisations that have more than one member, as has happened in the past, have been able to pool some of those funds to enable them to provide a general support base for the group. Each member has been entitled to an individual staff member and then some support is provided to the rest of the group.
For the Leader of the Opposition, who leads only three members of this Assembly, to have a staff allocation which I am advised is $146,268, on the old figures, when my colleague Mr Collaery, who also leads three members on the floor of this Assembly, has an allocation of $49,505, is totally inequitable. As was indicated at the time of the change of government, that is why the proposal was put forward to reallocate resources. All I have done is rejig the figures to ensure that Mrs Grassby, as a non-executive member of this Assembly, would get exactly the same staff allocation as other members. That is quite appropriate, and that is why it has been calculated in this way.
Mrs Grassby: On your figures, Norm, I got nothing; I just disappeared.
MR JENSEN: Mrs Grassby, you are there - "Members by seven". Can you count?
Mrs Grassby: You put me back afterwards, did you? I gather that the first time you forgot that I existed.
MR JENSEN: I certainly did. Whether Mrs Grassby was there or not did not make any difference because the calculations were based on another number.
MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Collaery, please do not reach into the public gallery or speak across the chamber barrier.
MR JENSEN: Thank you, Mr Speaker. That is an interesting ruling. We will have to check that one out.
MR SPEAKER: You can see that it is there, Mr Jensen.
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