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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 10 Hansard (14 October) . . Page.. 3190 ..

Mr Berry: I will do a work value case on you any day.

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Stanhope is the chairman of a select committee. It is the only committee of this place on which Mr Stanhope sits. The only committee work Mr Stanhope has to do is to overview, to steer and to offer leadership with respect to the Select Committee on Government Contracting and Procurement Processes. That is the only thing he has to do with respect to committees in this entire place. It is a workload other members of this Assembly would die for, I would say. Mr Stanhope gets paid for that privilege, and in 51/2 months what has he done? He has met once. He has met in the last two weeks.

Mr Stanhope: No, that is not true.

Mr Moore: They had to meet for him to be elected chairman.

MR HUMPHRIES: Of course. I beg your pardon. He had the meeting to elect himself as chairman and to start the flow of money from the taxpayer into his pocket and five months later they decided to have a further meeting to get a briefing from a government official which, I might point out, they had not sought until recently.

Mr Stanhope: No, you have got that wrong again. You are wrong again, Gary.

MR HUMPHRIES: Please tell me what you have actually done in the last five months, Mr Stanhope. What have you done in the last five months?

Mr Stanhope: I have done an awful lot of research, Mr Humphries.

MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Let us not have this banter across the table.

MR HUMPHRIES: We hear now that an awful lot of research has been done. He did not mention that a moment ago when he was speaking about this motion, Mr Deputy Speaker. He did not care to mention that he has done lots of research.

MR DEPUTY SPEAKER: Direct your remarks to me, please, Mr Humphries.

MR HUMPHRIES: Yes, Mr Deputy Speaker. He has done lots of research in the last 51/2 months. Where is the benefit of that research, Mr Deputy Speaker? He has done nothing in a public or semi-public sense with respect to this committee. He roamed from excuse to excuse as to why that might be the case. First of all, we heard, "Oh, poor Mr Hird, who is also sitting on the committee, is running from committee to committee and is very busy", and he let the excuse trail off at that point. He said that he was very busy and that was the end of the matter, implying, I suppose, by mentioning Mr Hird that Mr Hird's busyness, Mr Hird's intense commitments on other committees, had somehow prevented this committee from having a meeting.

Ms Carnell: He is not even on it.

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