Page 3904 - Week 10 - Thursday, 20 September 2018
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(f) the Standing Committee on Economic Development and Tourism:
(i) one member to be nominated by the Opposition;
(ii) two members to be nominated by the Government; and
(iii) the Chair shall be the Opposition member; and
(g) the Standing Committee on Planning and Urban Renewal:
(i) one member to be nominated by the Government;
(ii) one member to be nominated by the Opposition;
(iii) one member to be nominated by the Crossbench; and
(iv) the Chair shall be the Crossbench member.”; and
(2) that the nominations and appointments to these committees, pursuant to resolutions of the Assembly of 13 December 2016, 15 February 2018, 21 March 2018 and 23 August 2018 be revoked and that new nominations for membership of these committees be notified in writing to the Speaker within two hours following conclusion of the debate on the matter.
Very briefly, I want to thank Mr Wall, Mr Rattenbury and the Speaker for their work in coming to an arrangement on this. We recognise in this place that the committee structure will always be imperfect, but particularly so when the number of backbenchers is reduced a little bit.
There has been discussion for some time about the appropriate size of committees. While it is not a perfect solution, it is probably the most elegant solution that we could arrive at. I do note that, in arriving at this solution, we will be keeping select committees on estimates, much to my consternation; but I will get over it.
It is also important to note that, except for public accounts, which I expect will need to meet soon after members are appointed, the motion indicates who will be the chair, which I believe will negate the need for committees to meet and elect chairs, but they will need to elect deputy chairs at a later date.
I again want to put on the record my thanks. We have had many long, occasionally fraught, discussions about this. I appreciate the collegiate way that my fellow whips have approached dealing with what has been a surprisingly difficult issue.
MR WALL (Brindabella) (11.56): Ms Cheyne has highlighted that there has been quite a lot of debate and background discussion around the structure of these committees. The opposition will not be opposing the changes today. Whilst there is some concern on our side as to the format moving forward, it is probably also appropriate at this point to flag that the four-member hung committees are a by-product of a contest on the floor of the Assembly at the beginning of the last term. The tradition of the Assembly has been to have odd numbers on committees, albeit generally with a much larger and more representative crossbench involved in the committee structure.
We will let these changes go through today, and we will be keeping a close eye on how they operate and function. The situation is that an agreement has been brokered
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