Page 5841 - Week 18 - Tuesday, 10 December 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
board alternate arrangements - for example, a government member elected in accordance with the relevant procedures of a meeting convened by the Speaker or that member's alternate elected in accordance with the same procedures, and so on.
That is all that is required, Mr Stefaniak. If you want to get support for your amendment we would agree to that, but we will not agree to the title "Leader of the Opposition" going into legislation at this stage of the history of the Assembly.
MR KAINE (Leader of the Opposition) (9.33): I must say that Mr Stefaniak's amendment quite appealed to me. He made reference to the fact that the Chief Minister and the Leader of the Opposition had some statutory responsibilities. In fact, the Leader of the Opposition at this stage does not, and I was looking forward to having one. I am sorry that Mr Collaery does not feel like supporting this, as I do not expect to be Leader of the Opposition for long; I want to be Chief Minister next February, so somebody else will be filling the role of Leader of the Opposition in terms of this Bill.
In principle, I agree with Mr Stefaniak that the Leader of the Opposition ought to have at least one statutory responsibility, and I do not see any other one in sight. I support his amendments.
MR DUBY (9.34): Speaking as a member of that growing band of current and former Leaders of the Opposition - I am sure Mr Kaine will agree with me that that will be expanded by one after February next year when we have a new Leader of the Opposition - I do not support Mr Stefaniak's amendments. Speaking from my experience in the position, I remember that I was simply too busy to be able to devote the proper time to this very onerous task. I think it is a little too much to ask the Leader of the Opposition and, indeed, the Chief Minister to devote time to being a member of this board.
The issue of Leader of the Opposition has been traversed in the past in this place and my position on that matter is clear. I believe that an amendment has been foreshadowed by Mr Collaery whereby, if one of those elected members, either from the government side or from the opposition side, is not available to attend the meeting of the board, then an alternate delegate can go. That will certainly meet the need I see, which the current legislation does not provide, for proxies or alternate delegates.
Accordingly, I cannot agree with Mr Stefaniak's amendments. The Chief Minister, whilst she might not agree with me about the position of Leader of the Opposition - she undoubtedly thinks that - she will be Chief Minister next year - will agree that she has been very busy in that role.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .