Page 494 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 15 February 2017

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MADAM SPEAKER: Thank you, members, for your patience. It is my understanding—and I am sure the Deputy Clerk will jump up if I have interpreted him incorrectly—that it was on the notice paper last night, but it has since been received by the Clerk’s office and provided. That is the advice I have, which is why it is in its state on the notice paper this morning.

Statement by member

MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (3.40), by leave: Madam Speaker, yesterday I asked about question on notice No 1, which was due on 12 January. The minister said that it had not been answered but she was going to sign it off. The notice paper today clearly says, again, that question 1 is still unanswered. When I checked before question time I had not seen a copy of the answer, which is the basis on which I again asked today in relation to question No 1—it is clearly on the notice paper today on page 69—being an unanswered question. Maybe there is a problem with the time of compilation of the notice paper, but at page 69 of today’s notice paper it clearly says the question is unanswered. When I checked before question time I did not have an answer to the question.

MADAM SPEAKER: For members, I think there has been a mismatch with timing. It is my understanding that the Clerk has confirmed that the answer has been received and has been forwarded on. If we leave it at that and find that that is not the case then we can come back to this matter at another time. But that is certainly my understanding, Mrs Dunne.

ACT Greens-Labor parliamentary agreement

Debate resumed.

MR RATTENBURY (Kurrajong) (3.42): This is, I think, an odd motion that has been brought forward today. Mr Coe’s position is one that has surprised me. His assertion is that in requiring the public service to report on progress of implementation this is somehow a politicisation of the public service. Madam Speaker, each and every one of us—the members in this place—is a politician. We are in the business of politics. As we are all extremely aware, we did run for election last year and we ran as representatives of our political parties. The result, as we know, is that two parties, Labor and the Greens, had the numbers to be able to form a government. The parliamentary agreement is a reflection of that agreement. We now stand here in this place to represent the views of our political parties and the communities that elected us to be here.

For the third time in a row, at every election since 2008, Labor and the Greens formed a parliamentary agreement, and that is a compact that reflects our various election commitments to the people of Canberra. So in that sense the parliamentary agreement reflects the undertakings that we made at the election and that we intend to carry forward in a power-sharing arrangement to deliver government. We now need to be responsible and deliver for the people of Canberra. That is what people want us to do and that is what they expect us to do. We need to make sure that we are accountable to


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