Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 10 Hansard (30 August) . . Page.. 3735 ..

MR HIRD (continuing):

I, and I dare say my colleagues Mr Rugendyke, Mr Corbell and Mr Hargreaves, want this matter resolved. We do not want to see a repetition of what has happened to similar hire car industries in South Australia and the Northern Territory.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

Report No 83

MR HIRD (11.12): Mr Speaker, I present the following report:

Planning and Urban Services-Standing Committee-Report No 83-Activity of the Standing Committee on Planning and Urban Services in 2000-Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001.

I move:

That the report be noted.

Mr Speaker, this is our swan song. This is the final report of the committee. Members will note that this is our 83rd report, and I believe that this is a record for any committee of this parliament. We have got through a tremendous amount of work in the past 31/2 years and I believe that we have produced reports of great value to members of this place and to our community in general.

I want to thank my colleagues on the committee for their hard work and dedication during this time. We have not always seen eye to eye, but nearly always we have tried to see the issues fairly and treat the evidence with respect.

Mr Speaker, it is not common for a parliamentary committee to report on its activities in this way. However, I believe that this is an appropriate part of the accountability process of the committee. It provides an opportunity to reflect on what the committee has done and I might suggest that perhaps it could even give a guide to what might be the best committee system for the next parliament.

Mr Speaker, the report is simply set out. It shows that the committee met on 179 occasions, and 57 per cent of our meetings involved public hearings. This immense number of public hearings clearly demonstrates that this committee-my committee-has tried to give our citizens the opportunity to come before the parliament to put forward their views on important issues. The committee's report on the national competition policy review of ACT taxi and hire car legislation, which we were just considering, is an example of this consultation.

Mr Speaker, it is useful to note some of the statistics of the committee's activities. Half of our reports involved variations to the territory plan or a management plan for public land. The consideration of these matters on their own would take up the time of most committees. Half of our reports took less than three months to complete and 22 took over six months to prepare. The shortest time taken to produce a report was five days. By contrast, the report on the Gungahlin Drive extension took 23 months. I might say, Mr Speaker, that during the Third Assembly-that is, the previous Assembly-the question of Gungahlin Drive, or the John Dedman Parkway, was put on hold and

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .