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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 6 Hansard (13 June) . . Page.. 1592 ..

Mr Humphries: A pretty disgraceful episode, don't you think, in the history of the Assembly.

Mr Hargreaves: Don't be silly.

Mr Quinlan: It would have been disgraceful if it had been tabled three days after the-

Mr Hargreaves: I will tell you what was disgraceful. The hospital was disgraceful.

MR SPEAKER: Order, please! Members, I presume that everybody would like to be part of the debate here today. If so, I would suggest that all of you behave yourselves.

MRS BURKE: Thank you, Mr Speaker. That report is not going to be tabled but I will speak to it anyway. Mr Speaker, as this was my first experience of the Estimates Committee process, I saw it as an opportunity to gain a clearer understanding of the role of the budget-how it is structured and why; what the budget constraints are and how they impinge on the government's capacity to deliver high-quality services to the community; and what problems the budget addresses and how it will overcome those problems. I thought that the Estimates Committee would examine these fundamental questions, but it did not.

Mr Speaker, I was looking forward to making a valuable and intelligent contribution. I wanted to know how the principles and initiatives of the budget would affect the community. I was looking forward to hearing some robust questioning from the other members of the committee, who have been in the Assembly considerably longer than I. I must say that I expected to learn from the more experienced members how to use the Estimates Committee forum effectively to improve policy-making.

To say that my attempts to make a contribution were railroaded would be an understatement. In their defence, Ms Tucker and Mr Rugendyke, as they pointed out, tried to assist me on a couple of occasions but without success and I am grateful for their efforts.

It was my understanding that the Estimates Committee would conduct the hearings in an objective and apolitical manner, with the good of the whole of the community foremost in mind. Not so-particularly given that the chair of the committee openly stated that the report content would contain his personal bias. I can only say that I was embarrassed, appalled, saddened and frustrated that so much time was taken to simply bag what some saw as not being in line with their particular prejudice or view of the world as they would like to see it. How could anyone have reasonable input with such bias openly demonstrated?

Mr Speaker, I determined to take a collegiate approach, but was frustrated at every attempt. As Mr Hargreaves has pointed out, my intention was to fully enter into the debate. There was no attempt on the part of some to be informed by the facts beyond the obsession with scoring cheap political points. I do not believe that is what the people of Canberra need, want or deserve.

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