Page 495 - Week 02 - Thursday, 25 February 1993
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MR BERRY: Again and again. Your leadership is in dire straits because it is poor leadership. I can see the green eyes all around you. Madam Speaker, I played the role of honest broker in all of this in an attempt to get all players to participate in a committee system. Members will know and recall - some of them may not; I may be able to excuse the Leader of the Opposition on this score - that there was a gap in the Standing Committee on Legal Affairs. There were only two members on it, and it was always my intention that members should participate in these committees. I think that is a reflection of the principles of the standing orders.
You may or may not like the Independents participating in these committees, but I think it is fair that they do. There was also a gap on the Standing Committee on Public Accounts; it was two Labor and two Liberal. There was one Labor and one Liberal on the Legal Affairs Committee. It was always our view that the Independents should participate, and if you think back carefully you may recall that we complained that they were not participating.
Mr Kaine: It was always our view that one of the committees should have had our chairmanship. You agreed, and then you welshed.
MR BERRY: Which one?
Mr Kaine: The one that Mr Moore chairs.
MR BERRY: Fair enough. He is doing a good job.
Mr Kaine: So you do welsh and you reckon that is okay.
MR BERRY: No, nobody is welshing. What people are doing here is ensuring that there is participation on all committees. You do not like it. The Liberals have always been born to be in charge. They just cannot get over it when they have to share some of the decision making around this place. The Leader of the Opposition is being made a fool of. He knows that the gaps were there and they were always going to be filled.
Mr Kaine: There were never any gaps there, Minister. You are making this up.
MR BERRY: The nose on your face - it is as plain as that. It is as plain as the nose on your face. I have to say that I have screeched loud and long about the refusal of Mr Stevenson to participate in certain committees, and you have echoed that screech.
Mr Kaine: That has nothing to do with giving Mr Moore and Ms Szuty more seats than they are entitled to. That is a different issue altogether.
MR BERRY: It has nothing to do with it; it is different! You have a bit of a burr under your saddle now about Mr Moore and Ms Szuty participating in the committees, where they should have participated in the first place. I am very pleased that they have decided to participate in these committees because that has always been the way forward as far as this Assembly is concerned.
I know that Mr Kaine is referring to standing order 221, and he is going to argue that committees should be composed of representatives of all groups and parties in the Assembly as nearly as practicable in proportion to their representation in the Assembly. I know that you are going to take the fine line and say, "There are fewer of them and more of us". You can say that we can hack a leg off
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