Page 1536 - Week 05 - Thursday, 11 May 2006
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We are here spending taxpayers’ money, wasting time, debating an issue that we really cannot have significant legislative impact upon. You cannot deny that. We can make a case, through the report of the select committee, but we should not be taking this embarrassingly inordinate length of time to string it out for as long as we can, firstly, as Dr Foskey said, to make cheap political points; secondly, to continue to beat on the federal government; and, thirdly, to be the big smokescreen for the problems that the Stanhope government sees itself facing.
It has become very convenient. You will continue to do that. You will do that because you have the numbers; I am well aware of that. You are going to continue to sit there, cheeky and hard-faced, continuing to run this committee at taxpayers’ expense, in the hope that we can keep plucking out, via the various unions, people who are going to be put like lambs to the slaughter. I am sorry, but in my experience there are a couple of poor unions who have done just that—picked up people, used them for their own means and then dropped them. I will talk to you outside the chamber about that, Mr Gentleman. I could put to you a very sad case that recently happened to a local union that used somebody from the cleaning industry. That person has had a heart attack and is now unable to work.
We talk about this committee being able to achieve things. All it will do is stir things. It will mean that we string it out for as long as we can. It will not really achieve anything at the end of the day. We all know that. It really flies in the face, as I keep saying, of House of Representatives Practice. I will not be supporting Mr Gentleman’s amendment.
It being 45 minutes after the commencement of Assembly business, the debate was interrupted in accordance with standing order 77 and the resumption of the debate made an order of the day for the next sitting.
Education, Training and Young People—Standing Committee
Statement by chair
MS PORTER (Ginninderra): I seek leave to make a statement regarding a new inquiry.
Leave granted.
MS PORTER: The Standing Committee on Education, Training and Young People has resolved to inquire into and report on the responses of the vocational education and training sector to skill shortages in the ACT work force, with particular reference to: the demand for vocational education and training and whether this demand is being met in the ACT; incentives and impediments to the commencement and completion of apprenticeships or traineeships; the appeal of apprenticeships and traineeships as career development pathways, including general community perceptions; the effectiveness of apprenticeships and traineeships in addressing skills shortages; and other related matters.
Administration and Procedure—Standing Committee
Membership
MS MacDONALD (Brindabella) (11.32): Pursuant to standing order 223, I move:
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