Page 5218 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 18 November 2009
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I think that is an important record of achievement within five months for the new board. I would like to take this opportunity to commend the chair, Mr Gary Byles, for his drive, energy and commitment to Exhibition Park and for the skill set that he has brought to the board. He has been an outstanding chair, and it is perhaps with some disappointment that, pending outcomes of particular amendments, Exhibition Park may actually have a new chair within the next six weeks. That, frankly, would be very disappointing for the board and for the park overall.
Having said that, we look forward to the debate on the amendments. The government have put forward a number of amendments that we believe are necessary to address problems that we have identified with the bill. I am pleased that Mr Smyth has recognised some problems with his initial bill and has brought forward some amendments of his own. I think there is one that we can support and, on the other two, there are competing government amendments. We look forward to the debate on those matters.
MR SESELJA (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition) (4.02): It is as yet not clear to me from those two different contributions from the government what the Labor Party’s position is on this bill. I could have sworn that we got two totally different stories there from the two leadership contenders in the Labor Party about this bill. Ms Gallagher seemed to be suggesting that it was something the government would be supporting. Mr Barr did not seem to want to address that point but seemed to suggest that the bill was opposition for opposition’s sake. If he believes that, presumably he will be voting against it. So it is really not clear to me what the government’s position is.
I suppose it is probably no surprise that, firstly, Ms Gallagher, in the less than two minutes that she took, did not want to go in to bat to defend the minister on this issue. And it is no surprise that the minister, Minister Barr, is grudgingly, it would seem, although it is not crystal clear, actually supporting this legislation.
I commend my colleague Mr Smyth for bringing this forward and for the leadership he has shown on what is a significant and important piece of legislation. We look forward to the Assembly passing this legislation because it is a worthwhile piece of legislation and it is a piece of legislation that will make a significant change. It is worth going into how we got to this point, but first let us look at what is the purpose of the bill.
The bill’s purpose is twofold. It is to keep boards of certain organisations genuinely independent and commercially orientated. That is at the heart of this bill. These are bodies designed by their definition as being more efficient and more effective than and operate differently from existing bureaucratic procedures. These are organisations which the territory has already determined are better off carrying out their own business as independent experts. It defeats the purpose of setting up an organisation to operate independently if it is then stacked with public servants who answer to the minister. Mr Barr and ACT Labor obviously have hated this independence, which is part of the reason that the Legislative Assembly, through Mr Smyth, has actually had to bring this back.
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