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Labor members have obviously decided that they are going to start the ball rolling by making a great impact. They are going to make a fuss about everything that is going to happen in the Assembly. They are going to give it names. They are going to call it rorts and so forth. Mr Speaker, nothing is further from the truth. The equity and fairness of the committee processes and of the committee membership as drawn up in the motion are important. In fact, paragraph (10) of the motion states:

The foregoing provisions, so far as they are inconsistent with the standing orders, have effect notwithstanding anything contained in the standing orders.

It is there simply because, at that meeting between 11.00 am and 1.30 pm today, Mr Berry raised the point that there may be a problem with that issue - that the Standing Committee on Planning and Environment being composed of all those with key interests in that committee may be inconsistent with the standing orders. I believe that it is not inconsistent; but, just in case it was, I thought it appropriate to add that tenth paragraph.

Mr Berry: It is not a rort; it just looks like one.

MR MOORE: You will get your turn, Mr Berry. Hang on to your seat.

Mr Speaker, I think that what we have here is a situation where we have the potential to continue working on committees in this Assembly for the good of Canberra. I have contributed six years of very hard work and - I think I am correct in saying this - I have served on more committees than has any other member of this Assembly at this point. In fact, I am quite sure that that is right. That is not because I get a great deal of fun out of working on committees; it is because I believe that it is an appropriate way for me to make a contribution to the Canberra community, and that is what I intend to do. I have not used the committee system as a political tool over the past six years. I have not used it in that way to date. I do not intend to use it in that way. I intend to use it to pursue what I think is best for Canberra.

MR HUMPHRIES (3.41): Mr Speaker, the Government will be supporting the motion which has been moved by Mr Moore. Clearly, the problem that Mr Berry identified in the conduct of the last Assembly was a considerable difficulty, which was having committees do their work when a number of its members were hard pressed to service a range of committees at the one time. Members will recall a number of occasions when members had to serve on a considerable number of committees. The most salient example that comes to my mind is Mr Wood in the very first Assembly, who served on at least seven committees simultaneously. Indeed, he was so busy that on some occasions he was unable to serve on a committee at all. The then Government was left unrepresented on some committees because there simply were not enough members to provide service on all committees.

It is very important, Mr Speaker, that we have committees in the Assembly and that members have the time and the energy to be able to give them due service and do justice to the tasks that have been put before them. Those members who have perused the excellent paper prepared by Mr Symington of the Committee Office will have noted

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