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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 3 Hansard (10 April) . . Page.. 893 ..

MRS CARNELL: If it does, though, it will affect the Assembly budget. If the Assembly budget is affected, particularly if it is increased, that will mean a second appropriation. I have to wonder what the people of Canberra would think about a second appropriation to cover members' staff salaries that was put in place - - -

Mr Whitecross: Unlike the second appropriation to cover the $12m health blow-out.

MRS CARNELL: Actually, I would like to take you up on that one. The second appropriation for health, of course, was because we provided lots of health services to the people of Canberra.

Mr Whitecross: No, it was because you mismanaged your budget.

MRS CARNELL: It was because we provided more health services to the people of Canberra. The reality here, Mr Speaker, is that that would not be the case at all. Members have had adequate opportunities for input into the approach that we have taken here. Of course, if the Assembly wants this to be disallowable, members have every right. I suppose that the legislation will pass. But I think we really do need to take into account that when a member enters into a contract with a staff member at a particular salary, on particular terms and conditions, that is a contract that that staff member has every right to consider will stay in place. If the Assembly - - -

Mr Whitecross: But you do not care about that.

Mr Berry: You do not care about that. You want to knock it off.

Mr Hird: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker, under standing order 39. In view of your naming of Mr Berry earlier today, I would ask you to use standing order 202(e). They continually interject on the Chief Minister.

Mr Moore: He has not been named. I take a point of order, Mr Speaker. I think Mr Hird means warning Mr Berry, not naming him.

Mr Hird: He named him. You were out of the chamber.

Mr Whitecross: No, no.

MR SPEAKER: Order! I ask all members to keep their interjections to themselves.

MRS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, again I make the point that contracts between a particular member and their staff, I believe, should be as flexible as possible. Those contracts should be able to be relied on by both the employee and the Minister or the member. If we ended up with a situation where the Assembly could override that approach, I think that would be a retrograde step.

Mr Speaker, I come back to the issue of salary allocations. I suggest that there is no way that members of this place could ever agree on salary allocations for their staff. That is the reason why the Chief Minister has always had the pleasure - and it is not a pleasure - of being in a position to have to make those decisions. As everybody would

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