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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 4 Hansard (10 April) . . Page.. 940 ..

That Mr Quinlan's amendment be agreed to.

The Assembly divided-

Ayes 8

Noes 9

Mr Berry

Mr Quinlan

Mr Cornwell

Mr Pratt

Mr Corbell

Mr Stanhope

Mrs Cross

Mr Smyth

Ms Gallagher

Mr Wood

Ms Dundas

Mr Stefaniak

Mr Hargreaves

Mrs Dunne

Ms Tucker

Ms MacDonald

Mr Humphries

Question so resolved in the negative.

Amendment negatived.

MS DUNDAS (4.48): The Australian Democrats will be supporting this motion. We have always believed that the committee process is crucial to the function of this Assembly. Unfortunately, it seems that on occasions the time and work of the committees do not always effectively pass from this Assembly to government departments.

I endorse the mechanism suggested by Ms Tucker to try to ensure that recommendations are monitored and their implementation checked by departments through a reporting requirement in annual reports. Assembly committees and committee inquiries are important mechanisms through which the community can have its voice heard in a direct and complete framework without it being filtered through the media or political process.

Committees assist the Assembly in properly considering the breadth and background of issues, allowing informed and carefully considered policy development, not the hurried decisions that can be encouraged by the Assembly's busy program.

This motion sets out a process whereby government agencies include in their annual report an update on the implementation of committee recommendations that have been accepted by government. I think it is important that they be included in the annual reports so that we get them when we get all the other information about what is going on in the public service. It will allow us to consider in conjunction both what they mean in terms of committees and what they do with their day-to-day activities.

I believe that this motion, if acceptable, will provide an important link between the community-based work of the committees and the practical outcomes of government. It is important that the outcomes of committee investigations be built into our system of governance.

This motion instigates a formal means of ensuring that committee recommendations continue to be recognised and implemented in the machinery of government without MLAs having to constantly remind the government to do so.

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