Page 4549 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 19 October 2010
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I will move now to the issue of the pair. It is absolutely unreasonable to suggest that a Liberal member of this Assembly should forgo their vote so that the Chief Minister can go on a holiday. Pairs are granted by the opposition and by the government so that members can conduct their duties—either their ministerial duties or their Assembly duties—or for significant personal reasons or for an illness. It is not a provision that allows a minister, or indeed a Chief Minister, to take holidays and in essence still have their vote accounted for.
There are long-established conventions in Western parliamentary democracies, and in the ACT specifically, and it is very clear what those conventions are. People who are opposing what the Liberals are doing do so either because they simply do not understand what pairs are or they are coming at this from entrenched ideological positions.
Back in 2005, the then opposition whip, Mrs Dunne, wrote to the then government whip, Ms Karin MacDonald, and outlined the protocols for pairs. This was established in the previous Assembly, as it had been in previously Assemblies. It was decided that pairs would be granted for illness of a member or close family, for other personal leave like attending funerals, and for ministers to attend ministerial councils and other related business and reasonable—and that word is in bold in the letter—travel. It goes on to say where pairs will not be granted. It is quite clear—and you all know this; those opposite have been in this place longer than I—that those are the conventions for when pairs are granted and when they are not.
I will move now to the convention that has been established in this Assembly and for this Assembly. At the beginning of the Assembly, the whips—myself, Ms Burch, as it was then, and Ms Bresnan—met and discussed the pairing arrangements and how they would work. I received an email from Ms Burch outlining the pairs arrangement. This is the email:
Also below is the document discussed at the whip meeting.
Regards
Joy
And here is the principle:
The Legislative Assembly sitting days are an important feature of representative government in the ACT.
I agree. It continues:
Outlined below are agreed protocols for pairing to ensure the orderly conduct of the business of government in the interests of the people of the ACT. We recognise that there will be instances where ministers are unable to be in the chamber to fulfil their Assembly duties. As such, we will continue to grant pairs between the government, opposition and crossbench members as per previous practice.
So it is consistent with the previous Assemblies of this place and the correspondence between the government and the opposition of the day. It continues:
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