Page 4147 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 23 October 1991
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What the amendment sought to do was to achieve a base understanding of equity. I was open to any amendment that commended itself to any member of this Assembly who wanted to support equity - equity of any sort. There is certainly no private agenda on my part against Mr Kaine; certainly not in this debate. The amendment sought, I remind members, relates to section 4 of the parent Act, the Legislative Assembly (Members' Staff) Act, and that says that the Chief Minister may, by writing, determine that, having regard to the parliamentary duties of a member of the Assembly, the member ought to be empowered to employ staff under this Act. I remind members that it is within the power of the Chief Minister to determine that you cannot have any staff.
So, the operative words of that section are the empowerment of members of the Assembly to employ staff under the Act. Any capricious exercise of that power may negate the intention of the Act, which is to empower all members to employ staff. When the Chief Minister sets monetary limitations on the extent to which a member can employ staff, the Chief Minister in effect determines, having regard to our parliamentary duties, what level of staff assistance the member ought to be empowered to employ. So, in effect, the act by the Chief Minister of the day of setting the monetary limit is an integral aspect of the Chief Minister applying his or her mind to the question of parliamentary duties.
If the Labor Party feels some angst about the way they were treated when they were in opposition, I stand here now and apologise for not putting my mind to it when I was Deputy Chief Minister. I was not aware that they shared the feeling of ill-treatment that I do. I am not sure what they felt at the time, but I am not aware of their coming to the government of the day. I apologise for the fact that, whilst we were in government, there may have been members, who were dissatisfied in the manner that I am. To that extent, I accept that there may be an inconsistency in my approach. I put that on the record.
The fact of the matter is that it is extremely difficult for all members to contribute adequately to the functions of this Assembly at any time. It is a difficult task. There is a lot of work. Our parliamentarians work extremely hard, almost without exception. Whatever their agenda, they work extremely hard, and the public should know that. This is not a squalid dispute about money or, as the former Chief Minister thinks, my trying to grab some of his cake. If the Chief Minister, Rosemary Follett, had not made an allocation to the so-called Leader of the Opposition, we might have all combined to ask her to make a determination for all of us.
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