Page 2024 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 25 October 1989
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What are we driving at here? Why are we concerned? We talk about productivity, efficiency and service to the people. Every member in this Assembly has been elected by a great number of people. He or she is sworn to serve those people in the best way that he or she sees fit. The LA(MS) Bill allows the Ministers or the Chief Minister to use ministerial consultants, but restricts the right of other members in this Assembly to do the same. That is not okay. Even if it did allow the members to do the same, there are major differences in the use of consultants, as I am proposing, by members and in the use of ministerial consultants, as proposed by the Chief Minister in the LA(MS) Bill.
The difference is that my proposition says that the members are able to employ consultants within the allocation of moneys for staff. Of course, the Chief Minister has separate moneys allocated - not for staff, but for consultants, one would assume - and consultants under those circumstances receive an extra 15 to 30 per cent on top of what they are paid as consultants to handle the problems of superannuation, the fact that they do not receive paid leave, holidays, et cetera. The consultants I talk about hiring for members in this Assembly do not receive any extra money, not one cent. They are totally limited. They can only be paid within the staff budget allocation that has been allowed by the Chief Minister for Assembly members.
Here is a good example. At the moment I want some advice on computer programming. I have someone whom I can hire as a consultant. It would be, in that case, just a short-term consultancy that would benefit the Coalition and, accordingly, the people of Canberra. Initially, I heard that Mr Duby also was going to use moneys from the staff allowance - this was prior to his hearing the debate about the use of consultants - to hire a consultant. Possibly he had not looked at the fine legal details or details within the Act at that time, but he may have looked at a commonsense situation and arrived at a commonsense result, that his group should be allowed to use consultants within the budget allocation for the Assembly.
They deemed that it is the members' responsibility within this Assembly to so choose how they can best represent the people who elected them, and not only the people who elected them but all people in Canberra. I think the interests of people in Canberra would be better served by allowing that. In the meantime what we should do is govern properly. We should not have a situation where the Chief Minister or the Government take unto themselves opportunities that should be allowed to everyone in this Assembly.
Yesterday we passed a motion to require the Chief Minister or the Government to give a forward legislative program. This will allow us in advance to consult on the various Bills that come before this Assembly, with plenty of time
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