Page 910 - Week 04 - Thursday, 3 May 2007
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stacking the committee. That was not enough, so they went to the closed hearings process. What a shocking track record for a government that is obviously fearful of scrutiny.
This amendment should be abandoned, not just opposed. It should be abandoned by the government. Mr Stefaniak’s motion should be supported as it stands and the committee should be able to pick its chair.
MR STANHOPE (Ginninderra—Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Business and Economic Development, Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Minister for the Environment, Water and Climate Change, Minister for the Arts) (11.39): From time to time we in this place all engage in just a touch of politics and just a bit of expression of opinion that reflects our particular world view or a particular circumstance at the time. But in a debate around the establishment of an estimates committee in a majority parliament, any member of the opposition that dares to suggest that a government that concedes a three-two committee against itself must know the extent to which they embarrass themselves.
Today, we as a government have conceded the establishment of a committee that does not advantage us in the context of its membership. The numbers on this committee are three to two. There is a committee structure and membership agreed to by the government—a government with a majority, with the numbers—three to two against us.
Let us look at any other debate in any other parliament in Australia today—including, most latterly, the Howard government on the hill in relation to the numbers or the structure of the estimates committees in the Senate. For each of the estimates committees in the Senate, John Howard, the Prime Minister, and the Liberal Party within that parliament did not concede a structure which does not advantage them in terms of the numbers.
The debate today is puerile in the extreme. We—as a government with a majority, with the capacity to control this committee absolutely—have decided today, as an expression of our commitment to the inclusion of the opposition and the crossbench in the estimates committee, which is an important committee. We have today conceded to adopt a minority position on that committee. We have today adopted and agreed willingly to a minority position on perhaps the most important committee in the Assembly. We are in minority on this committee despite the fact that we are in majority in this place. We have the numbers; we control the numbers. Today we have willingly, openly, knowingly and inclusively agreed to adopt a minority position on the estimates committee. We have had this puerile nonsense—confected, puerile, asinine nonsense. You must be embarrassed at the lengths to which you have gone to confect a suggestion of a government with a majority actually abusing that power or that majority. You should be embarrassed.
It being 45 minutes after the commencement of Assembly business, the debate was interrupted in accordance with standing order 77. Ordered that the time allotted to Assembly business be extended by 30 minutes.
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