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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 07 Hansard (Tuesday, 29 June 2004) . . Page.. 2843 ..

need to undertake some necessary building work identified in the whole-of-life costing study for this building.

I cannot see anything in the government’s response to indicate that the government has taken on board the question of extra funding for the Assembly. We all know that the resources that we have to spread around are finite, but we have in this place certain obligations that we need to carry out and to set an example by carrying them out well. Ms Dundas raised the issue of having this building as a truly energy efficient building as an example to all other public buildings and the people of the ACT of what we need to do to become an environmentally sustainable society. Obviously, you need the resources to do that.

The $9.9 million that has been appropriated is a lot of money, but if it is not an appropriate amount or if it is not an amount that allows us to do our job here properly and be an example to the community, perhaps there should be some reprioritisation to ensure that that funding is available. There is never a good time to provide money to do what appears to be something for politicians but, that being said, we should not shy away from doing so.

The second area of concern that I would raise is support for the committees. The committees are working harder. I suspect that the reports they are doing are becoming more and more involved. I believe that there have been a number of instances in the last year or two where there just have not been sufficient resources to carry out the work adequately.

Perhaps in future budgets we need to consider the provision of some support for the committee system—some permanent researchers; indeed, just straight out additional staff—to help with some of the more heavy times, particularly the preparation of an Estimates Committee report, because that work is very important. It needs to be done professionally and is done professionally, but I think that any assistance to the committee staff to support us in our roles as members of those committees and, indeed, as chairs of those committees would be welcomed.

The third point I would like to make on part 1.1 is about the support directly to MLAs. I still suspect that we are underresourced. I note that there have been pay increases for the staff—for some they have been significant and for others there has not been a great deal of change—but there is still the fundamental question of whether we have adequate resourcing for the members to carry out their jobs properly. I suspect that we still do not. I think that we are probably underresourced in comparison with other jurisdictions.

Perhaps we should try to come to some sort of bipartisan agreement on how we can make that happen. Again, I suspect that this is not a good time to suggest that we are underresourced, but the reality is that the jobs are becoming bigger and bigger and the workloads are getting heavier and more complex. It is awkward, I suspect, for us to do the job properly and to do justice to this place and to the people without the appropriate resources

In terms of pressure on staff, I do not think there would be anyone here who does not stand in awe of the amount of work our staff get through. I think that it is important that we also look after them. I think that it is important that the pay that they receive is

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