Page 2026 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 25 October 1989
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is a range of skills. I certainly cannot do it all myself. Obviously my staff - one and a half of them - cannot do it all themselves, or Quona cannot do it all herself.
What I need, when I need it, is a range of skills. That comes with hiring consultants. One could say, "Well, you could put them on the staff". One could equally say that tens of thousands of consultants who are used by governments throughout Australia, by the public service in Canberra and by the Government here, could also be hired as staff. But that they would argue as being nonsense, on whatever lines they said it, to back up the way they already do it. I would agree that it is nonsense and that they should be allowed that right. I would suggest there should be perhaps more checks and balances.
So we should have the freedom of choice within our allocated budget. The Government has not addressed this matter; it has allowed this matter to be put on the notice paper to be heard this afternoon, with no feedback whatsoever to me, with no solutions. As I said, this has gone on for months and I find it appalling. I move the motion to allow this Assembly to inform the Government that we should have the right to determine how we use our staffing funds for the benefit of the people of Canberra. I commend the motion to this Assembly.
DR KINLOCH (10.43): I have listened with interest to Mr Stevenson, and I recognise it as a fair-minded presentation of a case we have heard before. I hope this will not be - it certainly need not be - a contentious matter and I would ask any of you who think it is contentious please to rethink that. There is no need, surely, for this to be a party matter. Surely this kind of frustration of one member's wishes is worth accommodating. I will certainly support this fairly simple request for backup staff appropriate to a member's needs. I would also agree that with the peculiar arrangements in this Assembly, we are a most unusual body, and where there are individual members then those individual members should be able to meet their staff needs. I commend that, too, in the case of Mr Moore or anyone in the Assembly. I agree also about the freedom of choice. I hope that we will meet this member's staff needs.
MR JENSEN (10.44): I rise to speak very briefly to the motion, but what I am proposing to do is to move the following amendment:
Omit "the Member", substitute "in accordance with the same procedures set down for the employment of ministerial consultants in the Legislative Assembly (Members' Staff) Bill 1989".
I think it is appropriate in this matter to look very carefully at the reason why we have moved this particular amendment to the motion. The Rally considers that the motion put forward by Mr Stevenson is too wide-ranging and
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