Page 4402 - Week 14 - Thursday, 28 November 2013
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estimates committee. The 500 or so recommendations that came out of that report, of which dozens were actually duplicates, were error ridden, factually wrong. There were about 500 nonsense recommendations praising the government. Have a read of that and then consider what we face as the Canberra Liberals on these committees. We face this sort of nonsense, political interference and political game playing by those opposite.
It is quite clear that the two-two committee system, as the Clerk has warned, is not working properly, is not adhering to the Latimer House principles. We are working within the framework that we are provided, which is unworkable. Don’t come blaming the Canberra Liberals for what is wrong. What Mr Smyth is trying to do is make sure that what we do in this place is right in accordance with the way the committees are run, through conventions that come to us through the federal parliament, rather than trying to freestyle and come up with something that fits this ad hoc, wrong process that has been implemented for committees.
Let us do this right. Let us take both these motions to admin and procedures, get a resolution that works and bring them back here—rather than trying to game play, which is what those opposite are doing.
MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo) (11.42): I rise to speak to both of the motions that have been put forward. It seems quite clear that we need to adjust the rules. It seems that the two parties have not been able to find a spirit and ability to work in a way that reflects the makeup of the Assembly.
There is actually nothing wrong with having a four-member committee that has equal numbers in it. The Chief Minister just described it quite well. Members should be capable of finding some common ground in some cases and producing—
Mr Hanson interjecting—
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Mr Hanson!
MR RATTENBURY: There is nothing to stop members finding common ground. Most committees have areas where members agree and can produce a report that contains that. If they want to add further comments, there is nothing to stop committee members doing that. It reflects the fact that there is not a desire to make this work, because if there was it would be working fine.
However, it does seem, from the debates I have heard here in the chamber and the reports I have heard around the place, that there are some procedural problems facing the committees and some uncertainty about the procedural matters facing committees. That is what needs to be addressed. Both Dr Bourke and Mr Smyth have brought forward propositions to do that.
We do seem to have a procedural issue with us this morning. As Mr Smyth said in admin and procedures on Tuesday, there was an agreement that both of these would
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