Page 2178 - Week 06 - Thursday, 7 June 2018
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Because I am a member of the committee, I know there is a considerable workload with two important inquiries currently underway. It would be up to the committee to find the space for this if the Assembly agrees to this reference. I believe it is sufficiently important to raise the issue in this place so that this Assembly can say that maternity services are important for women of the ACT, and that this matter should be dealt with in a way that gives consumers and providers of maternity services an opportunity to speak about their concerns and their suggestions for improvement.
We certainly need to do better than we currently are; therefore I commend the motion to the Assembly and hope the Assembly agrees with me that maternity services are sufficiently important to warrant a committee inquiry.
MS LE COUTEUR (Murrumbidgee) (11.28): I am a member of the HACS committee. The HACS committee is a perfectly functional committee, and I think it is appropriate that we as a committee make the decision as to what we do or do not work on. Clearly, there is some merit in Mrs Dunne’s idea, and there may be other ideas with equal merit. Due to the lack of time I think it would be more appropriate to leave this discussion to the HACS committee to work it out for ourselves.
MR STEEL (Murrumbidgee) (11.28): I speak as an ordinary member of the Assembly and not as the chair of the HACS committee. I agree with Ms Le Couteur’s sentiments—the Standing Committee on Health, Ageing and Community Services currently has two inquiries underway. I think it is very sensible for the committee to be able to consider the proposed inquiry in the context of its current and future work plan and any future inquiries that also need to be conducted, not limited to annual reports coming up closer to the end of the year. We have taken that approach with other inquiries and we should also do that with this inquiry before a decision is made as to whether we will actually undertake the inquiry.
Debate (on motion by Mr Rattenbury) adjourned to the next sitting.
Education, Employment and Youth Affairs—Standing Committee
Statement by chair
MR PETTERSSON (Yerrabi) (11.30): Pursuant to standing order 246A, I wish to make a statement on behalf of the Standing Committee on Education, Employment and Youth Affairs relating to petition No 25-17, ACT safe and inclusive schools, as referred to the committee on 8 May 2018, pursuant to standing order 99A.
As signatories to petition No 25-17, ACT safe and inclusive schools, 1,483 residents of the ACT have sought to:
… draw to the attention of the Assembly that students present to all schools, government and non-government, with a range of personal characteristics, including diversity in gender identity and presentation, sexual orientation and intersex status.
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