Page 3063 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 17 November 1992
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the select committee. The two things do not go together. Mr Berry made it quite clear that he did not want to listen to any debate; he did not want to listen to any logic. Mr Berry did not want to know about the fact that the Standing Committee on Social Policy could easily take up this matter that Mr Moore now wants to take unto himself.
Mr Berry is dead keen to help Mr Moore through the means of a select committee. One has to ask why this Government is so keen to bend over backwards to keep on accommodating Mr Moore. It raises questions that somebody ought to be looking at. Mr Berry jumped up even before the debate was finished. He did not want to hear what members of the Opposition had to say. I thought this Government subscribed to the concept of a government and an opposition, but they did not want to hear what the Opposition said. They want to do deals with the crossbench members, and we are supposed to sit here and take this without any serious debate at all.
I think the Government is in error. If they want to perpetuate select committees for the next 10 years, then let us amend the standing orders; let us recognise select committees as being permanent committees and do away with the standing committees. What do we need standing committees for if we are going to allow select committees to go on ad infinitum - even, as in this case, beyond the life of one Assembly, or one parliament?
Mr Moore: That is not true.
MR KAINE: It is true. This committee has been going on for at least two years and you have been the chairman of it. There is no standing committee that has that sort of guarantee. The standing committees had to be reconstituted with the election of this parliament and will have to be reconstituted again with the election of the third parliament. But in Mr Moore's case, with the Government's connivance, the select committee goes on forever. Madam Speaker, it is an absurdity and it is unnecessary. As I said before, one has to ask why it is that the Government is so desperate to bend over backwards to support Mr Moore in his ambitions.
MR BERRY (Minister for Health, Minister for Industrial Relations and Minister for Sport) (4.43): I would not mind responding to what Mr Kaine has said. He almost had me convinced, until he started on the invective against the Government in an unrealistic way.
Mr Kaine: Don't tell me that you were actually listening to what I said, Mr Berry. I don't believe it.
MR BERRY: I had to drag myself to it. The argument Mr Kaine put in pursuit of his claim was empty. The committee was selected by this Assembly - - -
Mr Kaine: To do a job, which is finished.
MR BERRY: You had your turn. The committee was selected by this Assembly to do a job, and the Assembly has a choice whether it wants it to do more work. Quite simply, the position for people to judge is whether the committee's work is important or not. The Liberals obviously think the committee's work is not important enough to support its continuance. That is fair enough; that is up to them. As far as the Government is concerned, listening to what Mr Kaine has said has made me even more convinced that we ought to support what Mr Moore is doing in relation to this committee.
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