Page 941 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 19 April 1994
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(3) Mr Lamont be discharged from attending the Select Committee on Establishment of an ACT Public Service and Mr Berry be appointed in his place.
Madam Speaker, this merely has the effect of appointing me in place of Mr Lamont to all of those committees where Mr Lamont had previously served. I do not need to elaborate on the matter any further.
MR DE DOMENICO (4.20): Madam Speaker, the Liberal Party will be opposing the part of that motion that automatically makes Mr Berry the chairperson of the Planning, Development and Infrastructure Committee.
Mr Connolly: "We are not vindictive, but ...".
MR DE DOMENICO: Mr Connolly, you are quite correct; we are not vindictive at all. As Mr Connolly is also aware, it is the prerogative, we believe, of the committee to elect its chairperson. I imagine that if Mr Berry were to be a candidate for that position he might be successful. For Mr Berry, in particular, to stand up and move a motion which says, in part, "I am automatically going to be chairman of the committee", is utter nonsense. As I recall, when Mr Lamont was placed on that committee he was elected as its chairman by the committee, not by the Assembly, or Mr Berry, or anybody else.
This is a very strange precedent. I can recall only one other time that it happened - the first year that Ms Szuty was elected by the Assembly, inadvertently, as chairperson of the Estimates Committee. Ms Szuty, in the meantime, has been re-elected time and time again as that committee's chairperson, but that did not require a resolution of the Assembly. I suggest, Madam Speaker, that Mr Berry, like any other member of this Assembly, should risk his chances, or not risk his chances, whatever the case may be, on the floor of the committee meeting. As I said, I am quite confident that Mr Berry will be elected chairperson of the committee; but it is the committee that will elect its chairperson, Madam Speaker, not the Assembly, or Mr Berry.
MR MOORE (4.21): Madam Speaker, we are waiting for that motion to be circulated. My understanding from my discussions with Ms Szuty was that we would see Mr Berry as chair of that committee. The interesting thing, Madam Speaker, is that up until now these issues have been negotiated in the Assembly, and appropriately so. The difficulty with the Assembly appointing the chair is that, should the committee have real difficulties with the chair, the committee has the power of removal. For that reason, Madam Speaker, once the motion is circulated, it would be sensible to seek to amend that small part of Mr Berry's motion. We can then ensure that the committee goes ahead with the normal process. Mr Berry may be chair of that committee. The debate is not over whether he should be chair of the committee or not. It is something we would normally resolve quietly among ourselves, as has been our practice this period. I would have been very happy for Mr Berry to circulate an amendment.
I now have the motion in front of me. We only need to delete a few words and then that matter can be resolved in the committee in the normal way. It is just a matter of deleting a few words.
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