Page 5708 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 6 December 2011
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There has been an informal agreement in this place that members are entitled to read from briefs or speaking notes without having to table those notes. Where a member reads from, say, a letter or a document, that is another matter. Members would certainly expect to have to table that document … This is a speaking note prepared for Mr Stefaniak in his Office …
So there is an informal convention in this place. The companion goes on to note:
Members accepted in principle the distinctions outlined above between
supporting documents and speaking notes.
It did, however, in that instance argue that the document should be tabled because it was a ministerial statement. That is clearly not the case here. If it is going to be the case that the Assembly orders the tabling of every speaking note prepared for every member in this place, the place will quickly become unworkable. The key issue here is for the minister to facilitate access to the information that is being sought by the member. The Chief Minister has indicated her willingness to do that and it is completely unnecessary, and indeed arbitrary, to order the tabling of the document in the manner that Mr Smyth has proposed.
MR SPEAKER: Ms Bresnan, you have got the call, but just one moment. Can I just clarify for everybody’s benefit: Mr Smyth, the Chief Minister has offered to table the document. Are you satisfied with that? A yes or no answer will suffice.
MR SMYTH: No. The standing order is about the document that is being read from. The problem in the past is that documents have been selectively quoted and when you get the full document you get a very different story. That is the point. If afterwards the Chief Minister also wants to table a document with this document she should feel quite free, if she is allowed to under the standing orders.
MR SPEAKER: Members, that was outside the standing orders. I was just trying to work out where we were up to. Ms Bresnan, you have the call.
MS BRESNAN (Brindabella) (2.53): This motion from Mr Smyth is unnecessary. The minister has said that she is prepared to table the very data which Mr Smyth has referred to in speaking to this motion, saying that he wants to see. The minister has said she is prepared to table it. I do not think it is necessary to be telling members to table their personal notes. Mr Corbell has read out the convention, which I also understood was the process in this place. We all quote from personal notes and briefs that have been prepared for us by officers and staff and by ourselves. I think we are getting into a particularly murky area if we start asking members to table their personal notes. We should accept that the minister has said she will table the data. She said she is prepared to do that. We accept that. We do not think the motion moved by Mr Smyth is necessary.
MR SPEAKER: Mr Hanson, on the question that the motion be agreed to.
MR HANSON (Molonglo) (2.54): Absolutely—on the question of open and accountable government, Mr Speaker. What this comes down to is the point that quite
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