Page 714 - Week 02 - Thursday, 25 February 2010
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I think it is fair to say that there has been—I have seen it anyway—an improvement over time in the nature of the production of annual reports which has made it easier for members who are not necessarily familiar with the workings and machinations of departments to work their way through. I applaud the departments for their improvement.
One of the things that I note as a member of other committees or from examining other departments as they come forward is that the consistency of information and the way it is presented are not there sufficiently that everybody can just pick up any old annual report and you can eventually work your way through it. There almost seems to be a competition between departments to see who can provide the best one. I would like to see the same format.
I do not know whether it is because people are not complying with the Chief Minister’s directions or whether those directions in fact are not specific enough, but, Mr Speaker, if you look at comments on the annual reports of other departments, I think you will find this comment quite frequently. It particularly goes to the nature of the tabulation of statistical information contained in those reports. We could perhaps have some attention on that.
I would like to express my appreciation to the ministers who appeared before the committee—particularly, during my time, Mr Corbell. I found their willingness to engage with the committee commendable and I would like to see the record show that.
This time the committee decided to put details of questions on notice as an appendix to the report. I would urge members to have a bit of a look at that. You will see the nature of the questions; you will see the number of the questions; and you will see just how much work sometimes vexatious or frivolous questions can impose upon the committee secretariat and the departments. Sometimes it is very difficult for a committee to go through all of those sorts of things, because there is a stack of them.
It is to the credit of Dr Jaireth—I am sure Mrs Dunne will echo my sentiments here—and her support staff that the distillation of all of that information in that quantity of questions on notice and the responses was done with such commendable professionalism.
I, too, would like to commend the report to the Assembly.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
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.
Statement of planning intent 2010
Paper and statement by minister
MR BARR (Molonglo—Minister for Education and Training, Minister for Planning, Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation and Minister for Gaming and Racing):
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