Page 45 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 7 December 2004
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Assembly can use its committee system to scrutinise all of the important elements of government activity, executive activity, in the territory. I think it is worth taking a bit of a reality check for members who are opposed to this proposition, a bit of a reality check on what happens in every other state and territory parliament around the country.
In every other state and territory parliament around the country—indeed, Mrs Dunne’s colleagues up on Capital Hill—very clear decisions are made about who goes on what committees, what committees are established—
Mr Hargreaves: and who chairs them.
MR CORBELL: and who chairs them and who has a majority on them. And let me tell you, Mr Speaker, if we had followed the precedent that every other state and territory parliament and the federal parliament had followed, there would not be a single committee in this place that was not chaired by a government member and had a majority of government members on it. That is the reality, and that is not the course that this government has chosen to follow.
Before we hear all the rhetoric about abuse of power and taking advantage of majority, just reflect on what your own colleagues do federally and what every other state and territory government does, regardless of its political persuasion, around the country. They do not even contemplate giving the opposition the chair of even one committee. They do not even contemplate giving the opposition an opportunity to have a majority on the committee. They control every single one of them. So let’s take that reality check first and foremost.
These committees establish a very reasonable framework for oversight and scrutiny. I heard the absurd argument from Mrs Dunne that, because housing was mentioned in health and disability, it only had to do with those people who were sick or had a disability and their housing needs. Well, Mrs Dunne is being deliberately obtuse and making an argument that is simply wrong.
The Standing Committee on Health and Disability deals with all the matters that are the responsibility of the health and disability portfolios. That is what it deals with. What is so complex and difficult about that? You know, what is so difficult about that that Mrs Dunne fails to get the point? The same again, of course, with the legal affairs committee, which has all of the responsibilities of the justice portfolio. There they are in that committee. The planning and environment committee has all the matters of responsibility of the planning and environment portfolios. It is not a difficult proposition to understand at all. The Standing Committee on Education, Training and Young People has the responsibilities of the education portfolio as well as the responsibilities of the sport portfolio. That is a reasonable approach to take.
Mr Speaker, the government has retained in the motion before the Assembly today the opportunity for members of committees to self-refer. If committees wish to instigate their own inquiries, they can continue to do that. Equally, we have indicated in discussions with the Liberal Party and the Greens member, Dr Foskey, that we will always be willing to consider select committees if particular matters arise that warrant a dedicated look seen to be too difficult to manage within the standing committee framework. That was the same in previous assemblies; it is the same in this Assembly.
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