Page 3741 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 17 October 1990
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ESTIMATES COMMITTEE
Membership
MR JENSEN: Mr Deputy Speaker, in view of the motion that has just been agreed to by the house, I formally move:
That Ms Maher be discharged from attendance on the Select Committee on Estimates and, in her place, Mr Stefaniak be appointed a member of the committee.
MR CONNOLLY (3.19): Mr Speaker, obviously, the Opposition is quite happy to accept the first part of this motion, which is that Ms Maher be excused. Obviously, she is travelling and is unable to be present next week. But we are unable to accept that, in a situation like this, a substitute be appointed. The Estimates Committee is an essential part of the process of accountability of government. Often, as many of us would know, it sits into the late hours of the evening, taking evidence from Ministers and senior officials.
The evidence given by Ministers and senior officials is taken seriously by the committee. Failure to give truthful evidence carries the appropriate penalties - not that we suggest that such a thing would have occurred. The committee has full powers to demand papers. It takes its business very seriously. It has sat, I think, for about eight days, often until midnight. It has produced a transcript of evidence some six inches high. The serious part of the committee's business is the taking of evidence, the examination of witnesses, the opportunity of members to question and, effectively, to cross-examine Ministers and officials.
I find it extraordinary that, when the committee is near the end of its evidential procedures, when it has one evening and one day to go to complete evidence from Mr Collaery and from Mr Humphries, the Government would effectively swap members and produce a new member - namely, you, Mr Deputy Speaker - who has not once taken the opportunity available to all members to attend the committee, has not seen any of the evidence being given and has not seen fit to ask any questions.
The purpose of the committee, as I say, is to examine Ministers and officials. To attend merely at the stage when a vote is to be cast seems to me to make a mockery of the procedure. If Ms Maher is unable to attend proceedings, that is an unfortunate situation; but to swap for Ms Maher a new vote, in effect, a person who has attended no meetings, seems to me to make a mockery of the proceedings of the committee and also to make a mockery of the idea that the committee has seriously taken evidence and asked questions. Mr Deputy Speaker, the Opposition is just unable to accept this proposed change of membership.
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