Page 2156 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 28 August 2007
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Finally, I will just say something else about public interaction. I notice there has been a slight drop-off in public attendance to the Assembly in the past financial year. In 2005-06 there were 1,932 visitors and this amount dropped by 4 per cent to 1,854 visitors—an extraordinarily few number of people, considering how many we represent. This included delegations from other parliamentary groups and community groups. Of course, often they are internationals; they are not even locals. A significant group came through yesterday from China, which I was happy to briefly speak with. But my concern is that the people we are here to represent are invisible in our affairs. There has been a slight increase in school groups visiting the Assembly, but the overall visitor numbers have dropped and the level of satisfaction of visitors to the Assembly remains high. I doubt there is anything like this high level of satisfaction with some of the legislation that comes out of this building, but that is another issue.
It is heartening to see from estimates committee hearings that some Assembly resources will now be redirected towards better staffing of the public entrance—that area has apparently been somewhat neglected—with more convenience and accessibility being put towards the members’ entrance. I just hope that with those improvements we are not going to see a deterioration on the other side because it is somewhat inconvenient for people if they do not have access keys on them to get in to the members’ side. So, at that point I will conclude my remarks on this particular item.
MR STEFANIAK (Ginninderra—Leader of the Opposition) (11.23): As one of the members apart from you, Mr Speaker, who has been here a long time, I have seen this place evolve considerably over the years. It is interesting, as we consider this particular item, to mention that briefly because there have been some significant improvements. I think most people accept self-government in the territory now, unlike when we started, and it is important that this place operates properly to ensure that we do the best job possible to provide a service to the community. It is one of the most important institutions in our system of government—and a unique one too in that we combine local and state government, which makes it a fairly efficient proposition as well. As my colleague Mr Mulcahy says, it is important for the Assembly to have the proper resources to do the job. Generally, this budget provides some reasonable resources to the Assembly but there are some areas of concern which I will come to.
Firstly, the budget continues to fund improvements to the building, especially to security arrangements. Whilst there are still some issues in relation to that, the security system is an improvement over the former system. Those involved in introducing it deserve credit, including you, Mr Speaker. The budget also provides some additional funding for committees. The committee office generally does an excellent job. I think every member of this place is grateful for the help it provides to us.
One of the areas of concern to Assembly members relates to the proposed cuts to the Assembly library. It has been proposed in the past that the Assembly provide funding for the library. Indeed, in 1999 the current Chief Minister was a member of a select committee that looked at the recommendations of the Pettit report into self-government, together with Messrs Cornwell and Osborne. That committee concluded that the Department of Territory and Municipal Services, as it is now known, should
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