Page 569 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 10 February 2009

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .

That Mr Corbell’s amendment be agreed to.

The Assembly voted—

Ayes 7		Noes 10
Mr Barr	Ms Porter	Ms Bresnan	Ms Hunter
Ms Burch	Mr Stanhope	Mr Coe	Ms Le Couteur
Mr Corbell		Mr Doszpot	Mr Rattenbury
Ms Gallagher		Mrs Dunne	Mr Seselja
Mr Hargreaves		Mr Hanson	Mr Smyth

Question so resolved in the negative.

Amendment negatived.

MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (8.54), by leave: I move an amendment which would change the reporting date proposed in my motion from September to August. I move:

Omit “September”, substitute “August”.

I had some discussions with Mr Rattenbury about an appropriate reporting date, but I did not take the time to discuss it with members of the justice and community safety committee. Admittedly, I had consultation with only Ms Hunter who has come to me. I think it is possible that we may be able to do this is in a shorter time.

I would like to put on the record that the committee, in addition to its responsibility as a scrutiny of bills committee, already has two inquiries before it. We need to do this matter justice. It would not get the full attention of the committee. Although we could be seeking submissions very soon, we would not be able to have formal hearings or formally refer to it until April. Then, as you may know, it would be difficult, if not contrary to the standing orders, to conduct inquiry and hearings during May because that time is taken up with estimates.

There is no sitting day in July; so the next sitting periods where we could report are in August. I think that we can do it in that time frame. Of course, the expectation is that if we finish the work beforehand we are not going to sit on it. We will report.

So I think that this is reasonable compromise which, I suppose, puts a fair amount of pressure on the members of the committee, most of whom are much busier than I am because they sit on more than one committee. Ministers do not seem to recognise the amount of work that will be coming the way of committees and that the crossbench and the government members have a much heavier workload than do the opposition members in this case.

I was trying to make sure that the workload was not too onerous. I think this is a reasonable compromise and I commend the amendment to the house.

MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for the Environment, Climate Change and Water, Minister for Energy and Minister for Police and

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .