Page 5941 - Week 14 - Thursday, 8 December 2011
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whip. Always. So my position has not changed, and there is no inconsistency in my position whatever.
It saddens me that those opposite just do not get it. It is about time they started playing catch-up football around parliamentary process and about what happens in parliaments around the commonwealth. At the moment, they are displaying an ignorance—which is sad for this place—of the role of this particular position. This is not a gift of an allowance of 10 per cent of salary as a sinecure for the leader of a particular party to hand out to somebody. You have to earn it. You have to do something for the money.
When Mr Stefaniak put the case to the remuneration tribunal, he put the case that there were certain duties, certain responsibilities, the whip on the opposition side would actually discharge. He made the comparison with the government whip. I have articulated in some way in my proposal speech what the job entails, and I have done that from a distillation of conversations with whips from around the commonwealth and from my observations and my own learning over the decade and a half that I have been here. I encourage whips in this place going forward to have a greater regard for the pastoral care of their colleagues and to have a greater regard for their role in the parliamentary process.
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.
Standing and temporary orders—amendment
Debate resumed.
MR HARGREAVES: Mr Speaker, I will not go on too much longer. I just wish that those opposite would come into the 21st century, grow up and understand that this job is a support role to the parliament. It is not acceptable to the parliament as a whole that a member can receive the full allowance for doing half a job. That is not on. I have been absolutely consistent in that position since the day I got here. If in fact the whip’s job is to manage private members’ business, and one of the major roles of admin and procedure is to manage private members’ business, the person sitting at that table to manage the private members’ business ought to be the whip.
The other point that I think Ms Bresnan tried to make—I have to say with some effort because of the caterwauling that was directed towards her—was that admin and procedure is really a committee of representatives. We should be able to represent the views of our party room. Those positions are not those of messengers. They are not messengers. We do not receive something and run back to the party room, the caucus room or whatever you call it and then say, “Guys, can we do this?”—and then run back to admin and procedure. This is a responsible position. The dialogue between the
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