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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 10 Hansard (14 October) . . Page.. 3203 ..

MR KAINE (continuing):

Members of the Government have had plenty to say about their opinion of whether the chairman has done the job. That is history. Is the committee to continue and is it to do the job? If it is, we have to give it the time to do the job properly and not place unreasonable demands on the resources of the people who sit on that committee. I do not believe that giving them a target date of the end of March is in any way sensible. I do not believe that it can do the job between now and 30 March. The Government has a decision to make. If they want the job done, I believe that they have to comply with the request of the committee chair and let the committee get on with the job and do it properly. Alternatively, they should move a motion to disestablish the committee. I do not think that there is any middle road, Mr Speaker.

Mr Moore: Just vote against it and the committee gets disestablished.

MR KAINE: Mr Moore has had his say and I do not wish to get into a one-to-one debate with him on the matter. We have to approach this matter sensibly and to have put this sort of artificial target on the committee when we all know that the likelihood of the committee doing the job within that time is about zero is a pointless exercise. All I am suggesting to members is that they think seriously about this proposal and make up their minds on whether they want the committee to continue. If they do, allow it to do properly the job for which it was appointed.

MR OSBORNE (5.50): Mr Speaker, I have just been reminded that it appears that it was my motion that set the timeframe for the committee. You can perhaps correct me if I am wrong. Nevertheless, I must admit that there has been some delay with work that has been done within the committee. From memory, Mr Speaker - you may correct me if I am wrong - Mr Stanhope did have some problems with finding a secretary. There was the mid-year break in the middle of it as well. There was also the issue of the Bruce Stadium funding right in the middle of it, which obviously took up a fair amount of all members' time. In saying that, obviously all of us on the committee would like to move forward. At our last meeting - - -

Mr Rugendyke: Your first meeting.

MR OSBORNE: At our last meeting, which was our second meeting, I think all of us acknowledged that there was some work to be done. We charted a way forward. In discussions with other members, I was perhaps open to bringing back the reporting date. In saying that, I have to indicate that I will have problems, being chairman of the Justice and Community Safety Committee. There are annual reports and draft budgets to be done in the next few months. There is the Christmas break and I will be away during January. I understand that Mr Kaine will be away for a fair amount of that period. That will make it impossible to do any of the work of my other committee, the Justice and Community Safety Committee, in that month. I think that March is impossible from the perspective of my being able to be involved in the work of this committee. Therefore, I will be supporting the motion.

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