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MR DE DOMENICO (Minister for Urban Services) (11.19): Mr Speaker, the Government will be supporting Mr Moore's motion. We will be supporting it because it makes a lot of good sense.

Mr Berry: You did not need a crystal ball to work that out.

MR DE DOMENICO: Mr Berry kills his own argument every time he gets up on his feet. The Government was in two minds, I have to say; but after the speech from Mr Berry there is no doubt that the Government will support Mr Moore's motion because it makes a lot of sense. Mr Moore talked about giving the committee a wider range of responsibilities.

Mr Berry: Did you say that you have changed your mind? If I had a mind like yours, I would change it too.

MR DE DOMENICO: I will take on only the intelligent interjections, Mr Speaker. That one was not intelligent.

MR SPEAKER: I hope that we will not take on any interjections at all. They are out of order.

MR DE DOMENICO: Thank you, Mr Speaker. It is true that tourism is a very important part of economic development. In my view, economic development is one of those things we ought to be looking at constantly, and to change the committee's name to Economic Development and Tourism makes a lot of sense.

I heard Mrs Carnell yesterday saying that individuals with certain interests in this Assembly ought to be allowed to develop those interests to the benefit of the community. I note Mr Kaine's chairmanship of the Economic Development and Tourism Committee, should the Assembly so decide, and also Mr Kaine's excellent work when he was Chief Minister in setting up the South East Economic Development Council, with the then Premier of New South Wales, Mr Greiner. Now that the Federal Government has decided to fund the South East Economic Development Council, which the ACT is involved in, the new Economic Development and Tourism Committee should be looking at ways of improving the economic development of the ACT and region, and I think a committee under the stewardship of Mr Kaine, who initiated that great council, is where it ought to be. Without pre-empting debate on the taxi industry, a committee that, strictly speaking, is looking at economic development and tourism is the right place for inquiries of that nature to go to.

Mr Berry talked about how this has all been stitched up by numbers. I find it very difficult to worry when Mr Berry says that because, of all people in this place, Mr Berry deriding the fact that numbers are used from time to time is an utter nonsense. Mr Berry is wont to tell us that he has never used numbers in his political career.

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