Page 257 - Week 01 - Thursday, 27 February 2014
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MADAM SEPAKER: Order, Mr Hanson.
MR HANSON: I withdraw.
MR GENTLEMAN (Brindabella) (10.43): Firstly, I would like to congratulate Ms Berry and all of the committee members for the work that they have done during this time. It has been quite a lot of work. I really hope that Ms Berry’s recommendations and her comments today are recognised. We have heard today from the opposition the excuse that the committees are not working because they are four-member committees. Mr Smyth gave us a little bit of history about the make-up of committees and went back a couple of years.
I think it is worth while looking at the history of the committee system. If you look most recently at this Assembly you find that four-member committees, on certain committees, are working quite well. The A&P committee is working quite well. The JACS committee and the scrutiny committee are working quite well. They report quite regularly. Contrary to what Mr Doszpot said about scrutiny of government, the scrutiny committee regularly scrutinises government in its reports and we work very well on that committee.
Back to the history, though, if we look at previous Assemblies, the A&P committees have mostly been four-member committees. We have had some five-member committees on A&P. In the Fifth Assembly, A&P committee members were Wayne Berry, Roslyn Dundas, Vicki Dunne and John Hargreaves. The community services and social equity committee had four members: John Hargreaves, Roslyn Dundas, Helen Cross and Greg Cornwell. The planning committee had four members: Roslyn Dundas, John Hargreaves, you, Madam Speaker, and Helen Cross.
In the Fourth Assembly, the Standing Committee on Health and Community Care was Bill Wood, Mr Rugendyke, Jacqui Burke and Harold Hird. In that Fourth Assembly again, the Standing Committee on Education, Community Services and Recreation was Ms Tucker, Mr Berry, Jacqui Burke and Harold Hird. The Standing Committee on Justice and Community Safety was Paul Osborne, John Hargreaves, Trevor Kaine and Harold Hird. Admin and procedure was Mr Berry, Mr Hird, Mr Moore and Ms Tucker.
In the Third Assembly, PAC had six members. Estimates 1993-94 had four members. In the Second Assembly, A&P had four members. The legal affairs committee had four members. Planning, development and infrastructure had five members. The social policy committee had six members and PAC had five. In the First Assembly, interestingly, A&P had four members. In one report they had inquiring into the structure of the committee system, they made a recommendation that the conservation, heritage and environment committee be increased to four members.
So the history is that four-member committees have worked quite well. They continue to do so in this Assembly on several of the committees. I think that it is a sad case that this particular committee has not been able to report.
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