Page 1943 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 5 August 2014
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Estimates 2014-2015—Select Committee—Report—Appropriation Bill 2014-2015 and Appropriation (Office of the Legislative Assembly) Bill 2014-2015 (3 volumes), dated 5 August 2014, together with a copy of the relevant minutes of proceedings.
I move:
That the report be noted.
I stand today before members as the now retiring chair of the estimates committee to say that the four members of the committee that they appointed have done their job and done it well. I think the members are to be congratulated on the way in which we brought about the report. It was without dissenting. Indeed you will see in the footnotes that there were only one or two areas where the various members disagreed with each other and felt the need to have it recorded. So, in that way, it is a success.
This is a very important report. Through the budget the government sets its priorities for the year, and it is important that we get a detailed understanding of them. During the 13 days of hearings, which included a recall day, and during which we heard from something like 180 witnesses, we were able to garner a lot of information about the intentions of the government.
I would like to thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, Ms Porter, the deputy chair, and Ms Berry and Mrs Jones, the other members, for the way in which you carried out the task that the Assembly gave to you. Other members who turned up and who came to ask questions were Dr Bourke, Mr Coe, Mr Doszpot, Mrs Dunne, Mr Hanson, Ms Lawder and Mr Wall, as well as the ministers and the Speaker, particularly with their officials. I think everybody conducted themselves reasonably well. There were a few light moments and there were a few serious moments, but that is to be expected.
I thank particularly Dr Brian Lloyd, the secretary of the committee. As well as his other duties, he landed that one and did very well. I thank each of the specialist clerks of the various standing committees that took care of the areas that they would normally cover—Dr Andrea Cullen, Ms Louise Gell, Dr Brian Lloyd and Mr Andrew Snedden, and particularly Anna, who was there throughout most of it and did a fabulous job making sure that Brian Lloyd was kept on the straight and narrow.
On page (i) you will see that we now have, under the secretariat, the “writers”. It is a substantial report. I say to Andrea, Louise, Greg, Anna, Brian, Andrew and Michael, who did a bit of writing, this is your work and we are very grateful for the assistance. To Matt, Jo and Jenny, thanks for the assistance through the administration. With respect particularly to Rod and his attendants, there was discussion about the important issue of morning and afternoon teas, and we were catered for wonderfully.
It is an important report. The structure contains a running commentary on what was discussed and then we get to a section that has the committee comment. The committee comment has led to 138 recommendations across a variety of issues. But there were three themes that emerged, and, as a consequence of that, we have pulled
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