Page 5004 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 26 October 2010
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Amendments agreed to.
Clause 13, as amended, agreed to.
Clauses 14 to 16, by leave, taken together and agreed to.
Proposed new clause 16A.
MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo) (11.43): I move amendment No 16 circulated in my name, which inserts a new clause 16A [see schedule 2 at page 5090].
An important aspect of accountability that the government seemed to have overlooked in the drafting of this bill was how the climate change council would interact with the government and the Assembly. This amendment fleshes out a process for that accountability, including the requirement for a financial report from the council that must go to the minister and the requirement of the minister to respond to any advice or recommendations made by the council.
The provision requires the council to provide the report to the minister within three months of the end of the financial year and the minister to table the annual report within 21 days or circulate it via the Speaker if the Assembly is not sitting, following the same procedure as was outlined for the targets report. I commend the amendment to the Assembly.
Proposed new clause 16A agreed to.
Clause 17.
MR SESELJA (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition) (11.45): I move the amendment circulated in my name on the green sheet [see schedule 7 at page 5094].
This would simply change the number of members on the climate change council from nine to 10. It is needed in order to facilitate a further amendment which I will be moving later.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for the Environment, Climate Change and Water, Minister for Energy and Minister for Police and Emergency Services) (11.45): The government will not be supporting this amendment simply because, for practical purposes, it is desirable to have an odd number of members on the council to prevent any deadlock. We hope, of course, as always, that these fora operate by consensus but, in the event that there is disagreement amongst members, we would not want to see a deadlock, which is certainly feasible if you have an even number. Therefore, the government does not agree to the change.
MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo) (11.46): The Greens will not be supporting this amendment. In addition to the comments that the minister has just made, we have not seen a clear case for increasing the number. We will come to this in a moment and I will speak to Mr Seselja’s further amendments. We believe that the council has a sufficient number of members in its current proposed format.
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