Page 2183 - Week 08 - Thursday, 10 September 1992
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Madam Speaker, I am sure that the Minister and Ms Follett are delighted to have their photos appearing in that report, and I look forward next year to seeing whether Trevor Kaine's photo appears six or seven times.
Mr Kaine: It will be in the frontispiece.
MR MOORE: He has probably presented the department with a difficulty. He wants his photo and the Liberals' photos in there six or seven times, but he also wants a better gender balance. It is going to present a little difficulty because the Liberals have only one woman in their ranks.
Mr De Domenico: And you do not have any in yours.
MR MOORE: I suppose the reason we may see a change to that could - I got distracted a little by the interjection, Madam Speaker. It is rare that I get distracted. I must confess that in my own grouping, my own Independent grouping sitting at this desk, there is just me and I am indeed a male. I must say, though, that I was delighted to have been described earlier this year in the Canberra Times as a person who did take a feminine approach to politics - something I was very proud of - in the way that I do things. It is something I do not attempt to resile from. I am quite confident and happy in my own manhood and in the way I deal with it.
Having dealt with that interjection, Madam Speaker, I will be interested in comments from the Minister on those little issues I raised. I will be very pleased to seek more detail in comparing the annual report with the estimates for the coming year. That will give a better insight into how the department operates, how the money has been spent in the previous year, and why it has been spent in the way that has been decided in the current budget. In summary, the annual report is an opportunity to provide accountability for departments. I hope that more departments will take note of the sort of report we have had consistently from the Department of the Environment, Land and Planning, and that we will see this sort of approach throughout the Government Service, at least by next year.
MR WOOD (Minister for Education and Training, Minister for the Arts and Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning) (12.15), in reply: Madam Speaker, I thank members for their comments and their congratulations to me and to the department, and indeed, I would judge, to the Government. It is a good report. It is the first of the reports to come through this year. I have always maintained the view, and I did this as an opposition member, that there is much to be learned from reports. It is my wish as a Minister that reports indicate areas of difficulty. Too often, reports will gloss over areas where there are particular problems. We know that nothing ever goes perfectly smoothly, and where problems may be emerging I believe it is useful to point to them.
Mr Kaine made a number of comments. He wondered whether the report had gone beyond the guidelines into some marketing. I have not considered that aspect. It may do; I would not complain if it did, because it is a very important part of our Government. I have used as a speaking point around the traps that the Department of the Environment, Land and Planning is what Canberra is all about. Those areas make Canberra what it is, and if there is an element of promotion and marketing in that report I think it is justified. Mr Kaine said that it did not reflect enough in the illustrations in terms of women, and I thought
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .