Page 3803 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 8 November 1994
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Ms Ellis: A valuable experience.
Ms McRae: Ha, ha!
MR HUMPHRIES: I think I heard an interjection from the Speaker. I think that it is open slather, Mr Deputy Speaker, for the future. The cost of broadcasting was an issue raised by the Chief Minister. I recall asking Madam Speaker about this question in the course of some estimates hearings. She may well come back to that matter and speak about it herself. I think it is possible to consider broadcasting as being the responsibility of those who choose to broadcast - that is, the television or radio stations - rather than the responsibility of the Assembly to package the material and give it to the stations to do that with. I would expect that if people wanted to broadcast they would have some kind of broadcast capacity set up. The infrastructure, I understand, is present already, without additional expenditure, and that would be used as required by those people wishing to broadcast. There would, of course, also be a necessity for legal provisions to deal with that question, to make sure that privilege was still protected in the broadcasts.
Mr Deputy Speaker, I indicate briefly that the Liberal Party does see merit in making the proceedings of this place more transparent, more accessible. Television screens, and to some extent radios, are the medium for communication in this day and age. They have replaced over the back fences and the shopping centres in many respects. It is important that people have, in that mainstream of their understanding of what goes on in this world, the proceedings in this parliament - not in an interpreted way, but in a direct fashion; and that would be achieved, I think, by the broadcasting of those proceedings.
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: The Chair recognises Ms McRae.
Mr Stevenson: Mr Deputy Speaker, once again, I expected better.
MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!
MS McRAE (4.33): Brighter colours might help Mr Stevenson. Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, and thank you, members, for the opportunity to speak to you. This is, in fact, the first time I have stood in this chamber.
Mrs Grassby: Your maiden speech.
MS McRAE: No, I am not a maiden any more, Mrs Grassby. I would like to thank Mr Moore for raising this subject, because it is something that, as Speaker, I am immensely interested in and it does fall within my role of responsibility in the administration of the Assembly. I would like to take this opportunity to make a few remarks about what has been happening. I see broadcasting as part of a broader agenda of making the Assembly proceedings more accessible along the same lines that most of the members who have spoken already have outlined. I, as you well know, have conducted a fairly energetic campaign to try to get groups into here. Those of you who have noted two morning tea invitations, whereas one of them should be for afternoon tea on Thursday, will concur that at least we are getting groups through, even through invitation, to meet the members as part of this broader agenda to try to make the Assembly a more
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