Page 4408 - Week 14 - Thursday, 28 November 2013
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252 Every report of a committee shall be signed by the Chair, and any dissenting report or additional comments shall be signed by the relevant Member or Members.”.
Debate (on motion by Mr Wall) adjourned to the next sitting.
Administration and Procedure—Standing Committee
Reference
MR SMYTH (Brindabella) (12:00): As per the agreement reached by all parties in admin and procedure on Tuesday, I move:
That the standing orders relating to the consideration of reports by Assembly committees be referred to the Standing Committee on Administration and Procedure for inquiry and report by the last sitting day in February 2014.
At admin and procedure on Tuesday all parties agreed that both of these standing orders be sent through to admin and procedure. We now know that has been reneged upon, and that is unfortunate. But it is important that all standing orders go through admin and procedure before they come back to this place. That has been the form of this place for some 25 years. I believe it should continue. With that, I am happy for my amendments to the standing orders to go off to admin and procedure.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Minister for Workplace Safety and Industrial Relations and Minister for the Environment and Sustainable Development) (12.01): The government will be supporting this motion today. As the Chief Minister has previously explained, the Labor Party’s position is that there is a need for an immediate resolution of issues surrounding the operation of committees, and that has been agreed to by this Assembly by the passage of the motion moved by Dr Bourke. But we also recognise that there may be other options worth considering alongside that proposal, and that can be further looked at by the Standing Committee on Administration and Procedure. So the government supports this motion.
I will, however, refute the assertions made by Mr Smyth that it has always been the case that amendments to standing orders are dealt with first by admin and procedure. That is factually incorrect. Indeed, it has been the practice of this place, following an election, for changes to be made to standing orders without reference to admin and procedure for inquiry and report. Indeed, I can recall a series of changes occurring following a series of elections over the last decade where quite substantive changes have been made to the standing orders, some of which were proposed by the Labor government, some of which were proposed by the Liberal opposition, all of which were debated and resolved upon by this place without reference to the Standing Committee on Administration and Procedure. So it is wrong for Mr Smyth to assert that it is always the case that these matters go to the Standing Committee on Administration and Procedure. The facts are that the Assembly itself determines what matters it will and will not send to that committee.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
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