Page 1749 - Week 05 - Thursday, 2 April 2009
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
not be allowed to participate. It does not in any way breach the parliamentary agreement, which indicates that the chair of the estimates committee will be a non-government member; nor does it create a situation where a majority of the committee is in the hands of the government. Indeed, the majority of the committee will remain in the hands of non-government and crossbench members.
In those circumstances—where there is no detriment to the non-government majority on the committee, nor any impact on the ability to choose a non-government chair for the committee—I find it difficult to understand why there should be any impediment to an additional government member being able to be nominated to the committee. Surely our objective should be to encourage as broad as possible involvement by non-executive members in the estimates process. This amendment allows that to occur; I commend it to the Assembly.
MR SMYTH (Brindabella) (10.19): I hear what Mr Corbell says. We actually have six members who would like to be on the estimates committee, so perhaps all non-executive members will be on the committee. I am sure that the Greens have four members who would like to be on the committee. The problem is that that is unwieldy and it is unnecessary. If we want proportionality, we can look at private members’ day, where there is one Labor motion, two Greens motions and three Liberal motions because that represents the basis of the non-executive members in the Assembly. I do not think the case is strong to make it more than five. If we are going to go on the basis of everybody who wants to be on it, let us have a 12-member committee. That just gets a bit silly and a bit out of control.
Mr Corbell: If you wanted proportionality, you would have more members than the Greens.
MR SMYTH: We could do that if we wanted to, but we have chosen not to. You should have listened to what I said, Simon. You always twist things.
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Mr Smyth, will you direct—
MR SMYTH: He always twists things, Madam Deputy Speaker.
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Mr Smyth, will you direct your comments through the chair.
Ms Gallagher: From the twister.
MR SMYTH: He is the great twister; that is correct, Ms Gallagher.
Ms Gallagher: I was talking about you, Mr Smyth.
MR SMYTH: We will not be supporting the amendment. We think the five-member committee is adequate. All parties are represented relative to their strengths in the non-executive members.
MS HUNTER (Ginninderra—Parliamentary Convenor, ACT Greens) (10.20): We will not be supporting this amendment to the numbers on the estimates committee.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .