Page 1799 - Week 06 - Thursday, 14 May 2015
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Schedule 1.
MR BARR (Molonglo—Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Urban Renewal and Minister for Tourism and Events) (12.08), by leave: I move amendments Nos 7 and 8 circulated in my name together [see schedule 1 at page 1855]. These final two amendments tidy up the rest of the bill, and I commend them to the Assembly.
Amendments agreed to.
Schedule 1, as amended, agreed to.
Title.
MS FITZHARRIS (Molonglo) (12.09): I will be brief. I put on the record that I support the amendments to this bill, and reiterate the comments I made when the report of the public accounts committee was handed down.
I thank the Chief Minister for his interaction with the committee and his response to a number of the committee’s recommendations, which I think goes a long way to addressing some of the concerns of the committee and also to balancing what a modern public service and a modern government is accountable for, and the information that it is providing to the community.
The community expectations are now that government is nimbler and more open than it has been in the past. I disagreed in the committee process with some of the recommendations on the basis that it was not, in effect, keeping up with the expectations of the community or modern public sector management practices. So I am pleased that the Chief Minister has taken on board some of the recommendations of the committee. I think the amendments go a great way towards making this a modern piece of legislation for our annual reporting process, which is of course very important but it is now just one aspect of how the government continues to be accountable and provide open information to the community.
Title agreed to.
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: The question is that this bill, as amended, be agreed to.
MR HANSON (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition) (12.12), by leave: I apologise for not speaking prior to this. As I have indicated, this is not now an improvement to scrutiny. We have said repeatedly that we would have supported this bill if it had been amended in accordance with what PAC recommended. It went to the committee. I was hoping the recommendations that came out of that committee would be acknowledged and supported by the government. That is why we have a committee process to look at these matters. It is disappointing that the government has sought to ignore those comments. We will not be supporting this bill as amended.
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