Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 10 Hansard (24 November) . . Page.. 2749 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

This is also the culmination of a committee inquiry which adopted a new approach by involving the community at an earlier stage of deliberations. I regard that approach as being quite successful. It gave the community a short time to express a view about the Government's budget and I think that contributed to the overall process in developing a report. But I must say that I was very grateful for the skill, care and attention that was given by the secretariat staff and their office assistants in the preparation of this report. I think overall the result was good. It was a different approach and one that I think worked well.

I would also like to thank my Assembly colleagues for their forbearance and for their participation in the inquiry process. They were under pressure because of timelines. From memory, the timelines for estimates committee reports have always been tight, and this one was no different. But everybody was as flexible as they possibly could be to deal with the program that was in front of them for the investigation of the respective areas.

Turning to the report, this is, as I said earlier, the second leg of a process which began in July-August with the Appropriation Bill. The inquiry, basically, was about holding agencies and the Government to account for what they had done with community resources, funds and assets and whether the ACT had gained maximum benefit. It is not a popularity contest and I do not think the committee is particularly popular with the Government or its agencies, and we never set out to be popular. I think the Government and the agencies probably think that the committee is far too probing, but that is the committee's task.

Ms Carnell: We do not think you are probing at all; that is the problem.

MR BERRY: Mock bravado, Chief Minister. It would be failing the Assembly and the community if it did anything less. A matter for regret is that the committee's role is not readily understood or welcomed by some agencies. Of regret also is the time constraint, as I mentioned earlier, which prevented the committee from going further. Also, agency annual reports need to be more informative so as to assist the committee and the community in finding out just what they do. You can always tell when a committee report is successful. You know from the amount of bleating that comes from the other side that you have hit some of the right buttons. You do not expect to hit them all in the short timeframe, because there are only five people investigating the work of many hundreds who have as their job the preparation of a public relations statement for five Ministers. The five members of the committee have the job in front of them to lift the lid off some of the distortions which, of course, are hidden behind the facade. As I said, you can always tell when you are getting close to the buttons when people start to whinge.

Ms Carnell: We have not whinged at all, because we have just got a copy.

MR BERRY: Here we go again.

Ms Carnell: We have not whinged at all.

MR BERRY: We must be close to the mark.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .