Page 1273 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 23 March 2010
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What did Mr Stanhope say when he tabled it? The document has been tabled here, on 9 December 2008:
The agreement will see changes made to a number of existing Assembly procedures and practices.
I have a right, I have an obligation as an MLA, to question those changes to procedures and practices. But you, Mr Speaker, said I cannot. “You cannot ask about the Labor-Greens parliamentary agreement.” I cannot ask them. The Chief Minister went on to say:
Arguably some of the most significant aspects of the agreement are those relating to roles of Assembly committees …
We are entitled to ask about the roles of Assembly committees. He continued:
Other aspects of the agreement affect the direct functioning of the Assembly …
We have a right, we have an obligation, we have a role to ask questions about the direct functioning of the Assembly. If it is a mistake that you call it a parliamentary agreement, if the Greens, in their haste to be relevant, wanting credibility, bunged in the word “parliamentary” when it should have been “party”, just ’fess up, change the mistake, table the document and go away.
What will this document do? Ms Hunter said:
The agreement tabled today by the Chief Minister is the framework for a new way of doing things in the Assembly.
It is the guiding document for the Assembly. Indeed, Ms Hunter went on to say—I am amused:
Indeed, one of the key themes of our campaign was to provide some third party insurance in this Assembly.
Third-party insurance! She says:
As part of the agreement tabled today we supported Jon Stanhope as Chief Minister …
She went on to say “as a world leader”; that this will establish the reform agenda:
… which will establish the ACT Assembly as a world leader in scrutinising and opening up the processes of government …
But you are not allowed to ask questions about it. If this dissent motion is unsuccessful today, and it appears it will be, what it says is: “We’ll change the Assembly, we’ll set the rules, but nobody can ask us these questions. Nobody can hold us accountable.” And that is not democracy.
With respect to the whole point here, we have heard it from a number of arguments. Ms Gallagher won the award for the limp contribution of the day: “It’s just about a
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