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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 1 Hansard (20 February) . . Page.. 74 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

We also are at odds with recommendation 12, which talks about the associated cost being met by the user organisation. If I was trying to make my mark in society as a salesperson, I think that selling all of the proceedings as a marketable product would be a difficult job; but I think there are some innovative ways of minimising the impact on the Government of the broadcasting of the Assembly proceedings. We believe that the broadcasting of proceedings of the Assembly is mandatory in principle. It is something that ought to be occurring in order that media outlets can gain full access with qualified privilege. That applies in respect of both audio and video.

Mr Speaker, so far as a dissenting view is concerned, I would like to point out to the members of the Assembly that it is our view, if I can put it in a nutshell, that we should have an all-in position; that is, all of the proceedings ought to be broadcast, both video and audio, and the cost ought to be met by the Government. Communicating the efforts of this Assembly to the community is a government responsibility. I am sure that some useful marketing arrangements could be organised with some of the community media organisations. Mr Speaker, I will leave it there. So far as other recommendations in the report are concerned, we have no great difficulty with them. The principal issue is whether or not we should broadcast it all or just parts of it. I think that to broadcast parts would be dangerous and not in the interests of democracy.

MS TUCKER (4.41): The Greens support this report as it stands now. I was interested to hear Labor's concerns about the fairness of how it would be operated, but it has not been my experience up to date that there has been unfair treatment within the Administration and Procedure Committee.

Ms McRae: Try next year.

MS TUCKER: Ms McRae says, "Try next year". This is just a start anyway. It is an experiment. I think that is the word used here. After the fact, when it is no longer an experiment and it is set in concrete, if things start to become obviously unfair, I am sure that there will be ways for that to be dealt with.

Ms McRae: I do not think so.

MS TUCKER: You are very cynical, Ms McRae. I will continue to have some faith in the system here. I think it is working fine at this stage. I think broadcasting debates of significance is a reasonable idea. It is not going to have a huge cost implication as well, the Assembly in these days of cuts to costs in all areas, and particularly in the Assembly budget.

I agree with what Michael Moore said about question time being recorded. Question time does not give a real representation of the more credible and intelligent debates that sometimes occur in this place. Perhaps the fact that a debate of significance was being televised and recorded would be an encouragement to minimise some of the less honourable exchanges that occur. I am happy to support this in principle. I see it as a trial, or something that we will evaluate as it goes on. I think it is a worthwhile addition to making the work in this place more accessible to the community.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

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