Page 2065 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 21 June 2011
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we can all be assured that workers at Calvary are going to be confident that their workers entitlements are going to be available to them when they need them.
As I said, there are many recommendations in this report—194 recommendations and 248 pages. I also note that there were some things that we initiated last year that were continued on, and I was pleased to see that. One of those was around the community sector survey. A number of organisations filled that survey out. It is a way that we can quickly get an idea and an assessment of what the key issues are for particular organisations and also be able to offer that opportunity for organisations to come along on the community day and be able to give their thoughts and opinions on the budget, on the proposed appropriation bill. I would like to thank all of those community organisations who filled out the survey and, of course, those organisations who came along and appeared before the committee. I hope that we have done you justice in picking up on some of those issues and including them in the report.
Another issue that we touched on was around the Fitters Workshop. I note in the Canberra Times today that this is still an issue that is very much alive out there in the community. I note that there are comments in the paper today around it not needing to be an either/or—Megalo or a place for the music community to enjoy a venue with fine acoustic value. A solution can be found that could accommodate both. The committee did look at this, and there is a recommendation in the report that goes to the heart of that particular issue.
To finish up, I would like to say thank you to fellow MLAs on the committee. It is a hard couple of weeks. It is a very interesting couple of weeks. For anyone who does have the opportunity to sit on the estimates committee or to be part of that process, it can be a great way to get a very good grounding across government and in some of the key issues that are facing the territory.
I would like to thank Mr Smyth for his chairmanship this year; also to Mr Hanson, Ms Bresnan and Mr Hargreaves—sorry, to Ms Le Couteur and Mr Hargreaves. I also take this opportunity to thank those in the secretariat. They do a heck of a lot of work, as I said, in a very intense, short period of time. I have already made my comments about the length of the report and what is included in it. I would like to thank Grace Concannon. I thank Dr Sandra Lilburn for her fantastic leadership, her great wisdom on matters and her advice, which is always sound advice. I also thank Brian, Veronica, Andrea, Christopher, Ellen and Nicola and, as I said before, Lydia.
There is an enormous amount of text in this report. One thing that I would like to see reinstated in the report is the sort of format that we had last year, where issues were dot pointed and then a reference to the Hansard was put in. I think that really provides a great reference document for a number of further debates that might be entered into. It provides a quick way to be able to access particular evidence that was given and the particular points and issues.
Thank you also to the officials who attended all of those hearings. Thank you to the ministers, to my fellow colleagues and to the secretariat. As you can see, it is significant, and we look forward to seeing the responses to this year’s estimates report.
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