Page 151 - Week 01 - Thursday, 9 April 1992
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MR HUMPHRIES: We are having people go outside to check whether it is two or three storeys. We will wait for an update on the exact size of the building. I do not want to be on the third floor, if I have to walk down two storeys when there are division bells, particularly if it has only two storeys. I do not mind sunbaking, but I resent being out there when it is raining. Do we have a verdict on the number of floors?
Mrs Grassby: No. I still say that it is three; Terry says that it is two. I am not sure.
MR HUMPHRIES: I see. As we can see, there are divisions within the Labor Party even on matters as fundamental as that.
Mr Kaine: They never could count.
MR HUMPHRIES: They never could count. Madam Speaker, I commend the motion.
MS FOLLETT (Chief Minister and Treasurer) (11.41): I thank members for their comments and their support of this motion. I will indicate straightaway that the amendments moved by Mr Kaine are acceptable to the Government and we will be supporting them.
I think it is pretty fair to say that the debate in the Administration and Procedures Committee is going to be pretty lively. It is clear that people have fairly strong views about an identity and a permanent home for the Assembly. I would like to say to members that, in arriving at an in-principle position on the South Building, we in the Government did consider other options. I can assure you of that. The South Building appeared to be the most appropriate and affordable, and also is available. We have done a bit of that groundwork.
I would also like to say that I am surprised that members have found the accommodation in this building so inadequate that they feel that they should comment on it. I think that the people who set up this Assembly, particularly the chamber, did a very good job, as an interim measure. It was clearly an interim measure. But we have been working here for three years now and the chamber, I think, is reasonable. It is not lavish by any means. As for the office accommodation, if you compare our office accommodation with the kinds of accommodation offered to some other parliamentarians in other States and Territories, I think you would find that you do not have a great deal to complain about. For my money, there are two very bad aspects of this building - one is the lifts and the other is the air-conditioning, both of which could have been and should have been fixed but have not been. The actual accommodation is not too bad.
To comment on Mr Humphries's remarks about how much of the South Building we might require, we have, I think, three full floors of this building. We have the whole of the ground floor, the first floor and the fifth floor. I think that we do not want to look at any less accommodation for members and for the Assembly itself.
Mr Humphries: But those floors are much bigger than the floors here.
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