Page 253 - Week 01 - Thursday, 27 February 2014
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I will have to go back to the mayors of the region, to SEROC, to the Cross-Border Commissioner, to everyone who has involved themselves in this committee, and say, “I’m sorry, after 11 months the committee was not able to resolve a report or any recommendations about the future.” We are not going to play this game anymore. I foreshadow that we will look at a procedural way of managing this—my colleague will speak to that—to make sure that you do not get away with the games that are being played on committees.
There are four-member committees. The community elected 8-8-1. That is the reality. So we will have to have four-member committees—two members from each side—and they are going to have to work through these issues. I see no reason why they cannot. There were four-member committees in this place for some time. They are not that unusual. But when you take the approach that you have taken from the beginning—and, let us be honest, the Canberra Liberals have taken the approach from the beginning of the term of this Assembly that you want to thwart, wreck, ruin, hold up and frustrate the committee system at any cost.
That is the approach you have taken. You have been quite up-front about it. I do not think you can sit there and shake your head and say you have not. I think you have been quite up-front that you do not want four-member committees and you are not going to allow them to work. That is the feedback that I am getting, that is the approach you are taking and it has been confirmed here today by the refusal and the inability of members of the committee to reach a compromise on an important report like that of the Select Committee on Regional Development.
Mr Smyth: Compromise means that you agree with the government.
MS GALLAGHER: No, it does not mean agree with the government. I listened to Ms Porter, and she proposed that both reports be considered together. So that does not seem to indicate to me a lack of willing to discuss, consult or compromise, and that motion was not supported. The view from the Canberra Liberals was that you could not support the discussing of two reports together. In my time in committees, that is exactly what happened. Someone would bring what they wanted to say to the table, there would be a chair’s report, and then you would negotiate through that and you would reach agreement on a final report. From what I understand from this morning’s speeches, that process was not allowed.
The ball lies firmly in the Canberra Liberals’ court. Some may ask what you are actually paid to do here. My guess is that non-executive members are remunerated to be members of this place and sit on committees, and you are sitting on committees and refusing to allow them essentially to function. You have to ask the question: what are you doing there? Not a lot, from what it seems.
We will move an amendment to this motion today to seek to have both reports tabled in this place, and we will continue to do that for every committee that finds itself unable to report. We will have a look at what you wanted to say, Mr Smyth, and we will have a look at what the chair’s report says, and then we will work our way through it and, from those reports, perhaps be able to make some recommendations for ourselves.
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