Page 2592 - Week 09 - Thursday, 16 September 2021
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That is why my original motion specifically stated that time will be minimised to ensure that they are not wasting time away from their core duties of responding to this pandemic.
Going to some of the comments from the health minister, in trying to take a cheap political shot at me, she has completely disrespected the comments from the Human Rights Commission because, clearly, she either failed to listen or refused to take it in. This is a direct quote from the Human Rights Commission, which wrote:
… emergency powers exercised by government must continue to be carefully monitored so that any disproportionate or inadvertent impacts are quickly identified and corrected. It is equally, if not more, important now in the current lockdown that emergency measures and their effects are accountable to public scrutiny, interrogation, and debate by the Assembly.
This is in addition to the countless Canberrans, the thousands of Canberrans, who, after Tuesday, were left wondering whether their government had a plan at all. These are genuine questions that members of our community are asking and have every right to know. For the health minister to come into this place and basically dismiss these genuine questions that are being raised and then say, “We support the establishment of a select committee,” is either a flippant disregard and they are just going through the motions or they have been strong-armed by the Greens. They knew this was going to get up anyway: “Hey, we’d better not look like we oppose this because it looks like we might be hiding from transparency.”
Whilst we acknowledge that the support is going to be on the record from three parties, it is about our community and it is about keeping them safe. I have two amendments to Mr Braddock’s amendment. The first is that we want to make sure that the names of members that will comprise this committee are given by each party’s whip to the Speaker, in writing, by the close of business today, a sitting day. The second amendment seeks that, under paragraph 4(c), hearings are held virtually or via secure teleconference until such time as health directions permit face-to-face hearings. I seek leave to move my amendments.
Leave granted.
MS LEE: I move:
1. In paragraph (2)(c), omit the words “20 September 2021”, substitute “16 September 2021”.
2. Omit paragraph (4)(c), substitute:
“(c) hearings are held virtually or via secure teleconference until such time as health declarations permit face-to-face hearings;”.
This should not be controversial. I thank Mr Braddock and Ms Orr for the discussion that I had with them yesterday about both of those proposals. They said they are agreeable to them in principle, so there should not be any problem with getting support for the two amendments.
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