Page 23 - Week 01 - Friday, 27 March 1992
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MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Kaine, we will deal with Mr Moore's amendments one by one first; then we will come back to yours.
MR KAINE: As mine is an amendment to his, you have to put mine first, surely.
MADAM SPEAKER: No; there are two amendments that Mr Moore has presented. Perhaps he can seek leave to move them together.
MR MOORE (10.46): It would be my pleasure, Madam Speaker. I seek leave to move both of those amendments together.
Mr De Domenico: I raise a point of order, Madam Speaker. I propose that we should deal with those amendments separately. It is getting confusing and out of hand. Can we take the names for the first committee first, and the second committee next?
MADAM SPEAKER: Is it the wish of the Assembly to divide that question?
MR BERRY (10.47): No. Madam Speaker, the issue before us is participation in the work that members of this Assembly are elected to perform by way of the management of business in this Assembly. Mr Stevenson's nomination for committees was done in accordance with the spirit of the standing orders. The standing orders themselves recognise that members are here to work and to perform a job for the community. Standing order 221 says:
Membership of committees shall be composed of representatives of all groups and parties in the Assembly as nearly as practicable proportional to their representation in the Assembly.
Quite clearly, the standing orders seek to impose upon members the responsibility that the electorate gave them when they were elected to this Assembly. Clearly, Mr Stevenson does not want to do the job he was elected to do. There have been two examples this very day of Mr Stevenson walking away from his responsibility. He refused to be in the chamber when the election of the Chief Minister was conducted and he refused to be in the chamber when the election of the Deputy Speaker was apparently imminent.
Madam Speaker, this Assembly has a responsibility to the people of the ACT to require that members perform a role in accordance with the standing orders. It is true that intensive negotiations took place prior to these motions being circulated. It is always a very difficult job to get agreement for everybody to participate in the committees of their choice.
Mr Stevenson made it very clear to me that he was prepared to participate in committees provided that everybody agreed that he should chair the committee and what the committee should do. Mr Stevenson is one in this chamber; no more than that. He ought to accept that he is one in this chamber, and he ought to participate in the legitimate affairs of this Assembly by way of acceptance of the spirit of the standing orders. It seems as though he is not prepared to do that. Not only has he done a job on the people of the ACT; he is prepared to perpetuate that by refusing to work. I am not going to sit by and let that go unnoticed. It has to be reported and placed on the record that Mr Stevenson has now refused to perform his work in the committees of this Assembly. I am disappointed that Mr Moore has assisted him in this regard, but I acknowledge that Mr Moore has been prepared to fill the gaps that Mr Stevenson has left.
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