Page 914 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 19 April 1994
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Assembly Members - Office Accommodation
MR CORNWELL: My question is also directed to the Chief Minister. I ask: Chief Minister, why have you chosen to re-create the position of Cabinet Secretary for Mr Berry, a position you regarded as unnecessary from mid-1991 until now? When Mrs Grassby filled this same position and you had fewer members in this house, was she provided with a ministerial office or any other extra entitlements such as Mr Berry will be getting?
MS FOLLETT: Mr Cornwell has asked, first of all, why we have revived the position of Cabinet Secretary. It is for the very good reason that we have amongst our ranks a member of caucus who has had some five years' experience at senior levels in government and in opposition.
Mr De Domenico: And has the numbers in the left wing as well. That had nothing to do with it, did it?
MADAM SPEAKER: Order! The Chief Minister is answering the question.
MS FOLLETT: I was unwilling to forgo the advantage of that experience. Madam Speaker, we have used the position of Cabinet Secretary during both Mrs Grassby's time and Mr Wood's time. The position is a non-executive position, as members are well aware in their more sane moments. It is a mechanical position where the member is involved in the more mechanical aspects of the operation of Cabinet, doing, amongst other things, the recording of decisions and so on.
Mr Kaine: Why do you not give Annette and Ellnor a job in the Cabinet as well?
Mr De Domenico: And an en suite too.
MS FOLLETT: Madam Speaker, I know the point the surly people opposite are trying to make. They have tried and tried. They are not making that point; they are looking surlier by the moment. The fact of the matter is that I have been advised, somewhat informally perhaps, that the size of Mr Berry's new accommodation is approximately the same as Mr Moore's and that there is no en suite.
I realise that the allocation of offices is a matter for you, Madam Speaker, but I think it would be silly to overlook the fact that it was a source of considerable contention between backbenchers opposite and other backbenchers in this place. This is a fruitless witch-hunt that the Liberals are embarked upon. As I said, I think they are looking surlier by the moment. How far does their blood lust go? Do they want a public execution or would a mere whipping do?
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