Page 3212 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 20 August 2019
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Appropriation (Office of the Legislative Assembly) Bill 2019-2020
Debate resumed from 4 June 2019, on motion by Mr Barr:
That this bill be agreed to in principle.
MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (5.33): I note that again this year the government has not agreed with a recommended appropriation for the Legislative Assembly, and it has given reasons. I put on the record again that I think this is an unsatisfactory arrangement; there should be a better arrangement for dealing with the appropriation for the Assembly and other offices in a way that is more at arm’s length from the government.
I have in the past advocated for, and will continue to advocate for, the approach which is taken in the New Zealand parliament, where there is an independent review of expenditures of organisations such as the parliament and statutory office holders. The recommended appropriation is based on that independent review and the executive does not amend it. I think that is a much more appropriate way of dealing with organisations which should be in all forms—not just for the look of it but in all ways—independent of the executive. I recommend that this is something we should look at in the future.
MS LE COUTEUR (Murrumbidgee) (5.35): I rise to speak about something else—a false economy which I have spoken about many times. We do not have any reasonable system of searching for questions on notice or questions without notice. I was talking about this when I was here in the Seventh Assembly. It is beyond me why the executive has not yet chosen to fund this for OLA, because I think it would actually save the executive money.
Instead of asking the same question that one of our Liberal colleagues has asked, because we are not aware that they have asked a question, we might look at it and say, “This was an excellent question that was asked; we do not have to ask it again.” In particular, I note that the government are now putting in a cost for OLA questions. I suggest that they look at the cost of those and think about how much they could save if we only asked the same question once. They should fund OLA to provide a searchable database.
It would also mean that members of the public might have a fighting chance of finding out about the interesting titbits of information that we find out. We know they can be found on the notice paper, but that is not immediately obvious to people, particularly as there is no easy way of working out what notice paper a question would be in. I highly commend this expenditure, which I know is not being made. I know it was said that suggestions for the budget could not be made until next week, but can I suggest an early entry, for a questions on notice database?
MR BARR (Kurrajong—Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Social Inclusion and Equality, Minister for Tertiary Education, Minister for Tourism and Special Events
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