Page 2884 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 29 June 2011
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I think that there is furious agreement between the government and the opposition about the sorts of things that should be in paragraph (3) and paragraph (2). I think that the wording in both paragraphs (2) is pretty similar. The wording that we have proposed in paragraph (3) is much simpler and therefore much more expansive and allows the government more flexibility than I think even the government does in addressing these issues.
Both these paragraphs ask for a reporting by the end of December this year. It is, firstly, more consistent than the original motion, which had a reporting date for you, Mr Speaker, by the end of this sitting year but for the government midway through next sitting year. I think that that consistency is reasonable.
I know that a lot of work has been done on this but I also think that it needs to be taken into consideration that there are government procurement guidelines. I think that that needs to be kept in our mind when we are doing this work. I commend the amendment to the Assembly.
MS GALLAGHER (Molonglo—Chief Minister, Minister for Health, Minister for Industrial Relations and Treasurer) (6.01): I do accept that there is a lot of agreement between the government, the opposition and the Greens on this motion. The government will not support Mrs Dunne’s amendment, primarily because we have already developed a whole-of-government policy for social procurement. So that has already been done.
I understand the point Mrs Dunne is trying to make around the principles of competitive economy but the government does believe that we need to develop and support social enterprises in a different way to other business enterprises. I understand the point that is being made, and the competitive process of procurement will still apply. We are very comfortable with the way paragraph (3) in the government amendment deals with that issue.
I take your point about December 2011. I think the issue for the Assembly is that that is really to develop a policy by December 2011. The requirement on the government is to report back around how successful the process is going, and I think we do need a few more months to actually see how that goes. We are doing heaps of work on what is required of the Assembly.
However, I can certainly say here that if there are things to report by the end of the year I am very happy to do so but I think when we look at what we are going to be reporting against, it will be the three demonstration projects, the trial of the implementation of the procurement processes and doing some more work across the requirements for government to follow social procurement. I do not think it is unreasonable that we have a year to do that piece of work and report back. But if there is stuff I can report by December I am very happy to do so. So we will not be supporting the opposition’s amendment today.
MS HUNTER (Ginninderra—Parliamentary Convenor, ACT Greens) (6.03): I did find it quite extraordinary that probably at least a third, if not more, of Mrs Dunne’s
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