Page 4624 - Week 12 - Thursday, 1 November 2018
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MADAM SPEAKER: Is that a call for her to come to the chamber perhaps?
MRS DUNNE: I think that is probably an indication that Ms Lee should come down. I was going to let her speak first because she is the deputy chair but seeing she is not here I would not want to let the opportunity pass. As members know, I came to this issue late in the game and I was there as a substitute for Mrs Jones, who was on leave.
It was a very singular honour to be involved in this committee and I think that it is important to put on the record my appreciation to my fellow committee members, the excellent chairing by Mr Rattenbury and the excellent support provided by Mr Hamish Finlay in the secretariat. To turn around a very complex issue and to synthesize it into a mere 80-odd pages—only 75 pages—of committee report is, I think, quite a job of work.
I think that the committee worked very well together, and one of the comments that I made in the committee—and I will repeat it here although it will not come as a surprise to members that I might have this view—was that this is an extraordinarily useful way of dealing with legislation, particularly complex legislation. I think that the Assembly is the poorer for not having subject matter committees look at legislation in a more thoughtful way more often.
We have seen it with the report that Ms Lee brought down yesterday from the JACS committee in relation to the consent bill. It does provide an opportunity for people to look at especially complex issues in a way and cast a light on it that we do not often see. The thing is that, when we do these things, we will find that the things that divide us are very few and the things that unite us are very many. And this is the case with this report. I thank members for the opportunity to have been involved in what I think is a very important piece of legislation.
I am going to comment on some of the recommendations and I have chosen these because of their impact on the Legislative Assembly and on you, Madam Speaker, because I did look at a lot of these things through the prism of my experience of having been Speaker. I know that Mr Rattenbury also shared some of the views that I expressed. It was unusual to have two former speakers on a committee to look at such important legislation.
There are some things that I think Mr Rattenbury and I agreed on. One was that there should be further discussion with you, Madam Speaker, about this because it is unusual for a chamber, especially a chamber this small, to have a current Speaker and two immediate past speakers all from different parties, all with a particular interest in making sure that the legislature runs as well as possible.
I believe that the officers of the Legislative Assembly legislation is very important and it does raise to a new height important integrity organisations. But I think that the work that is involved for the Speaker in this legislation actually increases the level of work required by the Speaker, and the level of assistance that the Speaker will require, to a new height.
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