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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 07 Hansard (Tuesday, 29 June 2004) . . Page.. 2847 ..

superannuation scheme. Membership of this place is a lot of work for everyone. I do not know whether the people of the ACT realise the amount of work members do.

It is not surprising that members get sick but they have to carry on, which probably makes it far worse for them. Those are things that people just do not realise when they look at what we do. The appropriation is modest, as usual, but there probably will be some real and not unreasonable pressures in this area in the years to come that will justify a sensible increase.

MRS BURKE (11.03): I wish to make a couple of brief comments. I take on board and note the comments of my colleagues. For my part, the announcement that was made this morning about Mr Corbell puts a whole new perspective on what we are debating this morning, particularly the first item. I think that, with the advent of better communications, such as email and the internet, people are putting greater and greater demands upon us as a body of people. We are not machines; neither are our staff, nor is the secretariat.

As Mr Cornwell said, quite rightly, we have to be bold and be able to stand up in the face of people knocking self-government and knocking politicians. I believe that we can do a lot about improving our image in this place by facing up to the community in regard to the expectations that are placed upon us and explain our case. We do not have to defend our case; we have to explain our case. People are putting greater demands upon us. If we averaged it out we would find that most of us in this place work extra hours. We put an inordinate amount of personal time into the job because we are dedicated and we are committed.

Staff issues are something that we need to look at, certainly the resources for staff. The need for extra members has been talked about. The debate needs to continue on that. I think that more of us are being asked to do more, as I alluded to earlier, which brings with it greater workloads and greater pressures and stresses within the job.

The committee system is of interest to me. The absence of one or two members from this place, who may perhaps be unwell or on leave, brings great pressure to bear upon a system that we depend upon for good governance, that is, the committee system. People in the community demand high standards of us, yet they baulk at having more people in this place to do the work demanded of this place. I would strongly urge members to seek unity on this matter of having more members and making improvements to our committee system. I think that we should be looking at that.

MR WOOD (Minister for Disability, Housing and Community Services, Minister for Urban Services, Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Minister for Arts and Heritage, and Acting Minister for Health) (11.06): Mr Speaker, I am a bit intrigued by this debate. I agree that everybody in this place works hard. If you did not want to, you would have no choice because you are so close to the community anyway. But it is my view that willingly everybody in this place works hard. That probably increases somewhat if you are in the ministry.

I went away recently and I worked hard while I was away, yet I understand that in the media here, including on the radio, there was some comment about coasting and things like that. I listened to what Mr Stefaniak said today and I accept it. I believed it when he

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