Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .
Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 4 Hansard (22 April) . . Page.. 1189 ..
Ms Tucker: I have already said it, but he is not acknowledging what I said.
MR HUMPHRIES: No, I do recognise what you are saying, Ms Tucker. You want to have some sort of holistic report on everything that is going on. That is fine, but the fact is that departmental reports have tended not to be viewed in that way. They have tended to be viewed as being about what is going on in a particular department and the vast majority of recommendations and comments in reports have been about what goes on in those departments. That has been the process that we have had in the past when we have had a single Estimates Committee. Why is it going to change this year, why are we going to have a different holistic approach suddenly emerging, if we continue with the approach that we have used in previous years, I would argue unsuccessfully? With respect, Mr Speaker, I do not think the method used before has produced devastatingly good results. It has prevented the specialisation that has been achieved in those individual portfolio committees being applied to the annual reports. It would be a good thing if it were.
MR SPEAKER: Members, I would ask for your indulgence to agree retrospectively to Mr Humphries speaking again. It has been drawn to my attention that he spoke after the amendment was moved. Is leave granted for Mr Humphries to speak again?
Leave granted.
MR HUMPHRIES: I thought I had two chances to speak to an amendment, Mr Speaker. Do I not have two chances to speak to an amendment? No. Only to a Bill, okay.
MR SPEAKER: No. Mrs Carnell's second speech addressed the amendments.
Amendments agreed to.
Motion, as amended, agreed to.
MR SPEAKER: I have received a letter from Ms Tucker proposing that a matter of public importance be submitted to the Assembly for discussion, namely:
The need for Government to take responsibility for ensuring best practice management of use of chemicals for weed and pest control in the ACT.
MS TUCKER (4.13): Mr Speaker, in the first week of the new school term, preschoolers across Canberra returned from holidays to find their sandpits out of bounds. They cannot play in them because maybe their sandpits have been sprayed with simazine and roundup for weed control. I say "maybe" advisedly because, while the Minister for Education, Mr Stefaniak, confirmed to the Assembly on Tuesday that the Curtin Preschool sandpit was sprayed with weedkiller, he could not be sure which other ACT
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .