Page 1479 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 6 April 2011

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tired old stories that have been disproven by the officers concerned. Again, for the benefit of Mr Seselja, Mr Harwood’s letter goes to one of his allegations—

Mr Seselja interjecting—

MR BARR: Madam Assistant Speaker—

Mrs Dunne: One of the allegations?

MR BARR: One of the allegations. I have dealt with a number of the other allegations in question time. I do not intend to waste the Assembly’s time now in going over all of them again; we have got better things to do. I think it is important, Madam Assistant Speaker, to call this for what it is. They do not like it—they do not like hearing it—and their reaction speaks volumes. The content of Mr Seselja’s speech went entirely against everything Mrs Dunne has protested was the real reason for moving this motion.

On the specific issue of what Mrs Dunne was calling for—and that was statements explaining how policies and procedures were applied in practice and how staff are trained in, and informed of, the operations of those policies—point (2)(c) of Ms Hunter’s motion is there for it to be provided. Both Minister Burch and I acknowledge that. In supporting this amendment, we are committing to doing so. That is the important point.

Mrs Dunne is all about this information being available to those who are conducting the inquiry. That is exactly what this amendment does. I think that is important. It is consistent with everything Minister Burch has said throughout this debate and everything that she has endeavoured to do in order to address some significant issues that we have all acknowledged. It would appear that the one element of unanimity within this place is that there are challenges that need to be addressed in one of the most complex working environments that anyone could imagine. In that context this amendment and the way in which the Assembly has dealt with this matter on the previous two or three occasions are the appropriate way forward. For those reasons, Madam Assistant Speaker, the government will be supporting Ms Hunter’s amendment. It is eminently sensible, it is consistent with previous decisions of this place and, dare I say it, it reflects the will of the Assembly.

Question put:

That Ms Hunter’s amendment be agreed to.

The Assembly voted—

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