Page 1338 - Week 05 - Tuesday, 10 May 1994
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MS FOLLETT: That is a very hypothetical question, Madam Speaker. I have rarely found it to be an advantage to look too eager if you want to buy anything. For that reason, Madam Speaker, I do not intend to rush out and make an offer for Canberra Airport. I think that we need further information. Another aspect that I should have mentioned in my first answer is the question of Badgerys Creek. You will be aware that the white paper also canvasses the possibility of the Badgerys Creek airport being proceeded with quite rapidly and also being developed to international standard. That decision, and progress on that development, could well have an impact on, say, the business viability of the Canberra Airport; I just do not know. But they are all issues that need to be considered.
Cabinet Secretary
MR HUMPHRIES: My question is addressed to the Chief Minister. Can the Chief Minister describe to the Assembly the tasks of the Cabinet Secretary? Do they include taking minutes at Cabinet meetings, and do they include the filing and safekeeping of Cabinet documents? If so, how has this changed the role of the Cabinet Office vis-a-vis the role of the Cabinet Secretary? What additional responsibilities does Mr Berry have as Cabinet Secretary that Mrs Grassby did not have when she was Cabinet Secretary?
MS FOLLETT: To answer the last part first, Madam Speaker, I inform the Assembly that Mr Berry has the additional responsibilities of Government Whip and Manager of Government Business, for a start.
Mr Humphries: No; as Cabinet Secretary, I said.
MS FOLLETT: The responsibilities of Cabinet Secretary - I have answered this question in full before, I might say - relate largely to the mechanics of Cabinet meetings, not to the policy or decision making of Cabinet. The role of the Cabinet Secretary is to record the decisions of Cabinet, to ensure that those decisions are accurate when they are conveyed to the rest of the Executive and so on. It is a mechanical position, as I have said. There is some ordering of the business, some attention to agenda setting and so on. But, as I have said before, it is not an Executive position; it is one involving the mechanics of Cabinet meetings. In that regard, the role that Mr Berry performs is similar to that which has been performed by other members in that role.
MR HUMPHRIES: I ask a supplementary question, Madam Speaker, to clarify the position. The Cabinet Secretary helps to order the agenda and takes minutes of proceedings; is that correct?
MS FOLLETT: Yes, Madam Speaker, for I think the third time. That is, roughly speaking, the role of the Cabinet Secretary. I do not pretend to understand the point that Mr Humphries is getting at, but that is certainly a role which we have utilised in the past. The difference in Mr Berry fulfilling that role is, as I have said, that he has, in addition, the role of Manager of Government Business - which, again, is largely a mechanical role; it goes to the ordering of the Government's business in the Assembly, the setting of the Government's agenda in the Assembly and so on - and the role of Government Whip. I do not know how many times I can answer the question in the same way.
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