Page 1748 - Week 05 - Thursday, 2 April 2009
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Emergency Services) (10.14): The government will be supporting Mr Smyth’s amendment and the substantive motion, but I foreshadow that, once we have dealt with Mr Smyth’s amendment, I will be proposing an amendment to provide for two members nominated by the government to be represented on the committee, and I will speak to that in due course.
This motion and the amendment by Mr Smyth do reflect our understanding of what has been negotiated in the Assembly over the past week or so. In particular, in relation to Mr Smyth’s amendment, I note that it proposes that funds be provided by the Assembly. The government takes that to mean by the Assembly within its existing budget and that it is not a request for any additional funding from the executive.
With that in mind, as I understand that it has been agreed, the government will be supporting the amendment, and I foreshadow that I will shortly be moving an amendment to deal with the number of government members nominated to the committee.
MS HUNTER (Ginninderra—Parliamentary Convenor, ACT Greens) (10.15): The Greens will be supporting Mr Smyth’s motion today and the amendment to the motion. This motion today addresses the important procedural issue of establishing the select committee on estimates for 2009-10. The Greens are pleased to see that the amendment to this motion will address item 2.12 of the parliamentary agreement, which called for the establishment of additional support for the estimates committee to strengthen transparency in its physical planning framework and improve scrutiny of the estimates process. As the Assembly is aware, the administration and procedure committee is currently examining the merit of appointing a parliamentary budget officer on a permanent basis by investigating roles and the functions of other models in international parliaments.
This amendment today will provide a temporary arrangement for the upcoming estimates process. That will serve as a sort of stopgap until the administration and procedure committee have reported on their inquiry. It is also very clear that, with Mr Smyth’s amendment, funds provided by the Assembly are within the Assembly’s current budget.
Amendment agreed to.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for the Environment, Climate Change and Water, Minister for Energy and Minister for Police and Emergency Services) (10.16), by leave: I move:
Omit “one Member”, substitute “two Members”, in paragraph (2)(a).
This amendment, which I have provided to the Clerk—I note that it has yet to be circulated—simply replaces words at paragraph (2)(a). Instead of saying “one member to be nominated by the government”, I propose that it say “two members to be nominated by the government”.
The fact is that the government has two non-executive members who are keen to participate in the estimates committee inquiry and we see no reason why they should
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