Page 2036 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 6 June 2018

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(b) two Members to be nominated by the Opposition;

(d) the chair shall be a Crossbench Member;

(3) the select committee be provided with necessary staff, facilities and resources;

(4) the select committee is to report by 31 October 2018;

(5) if the Assembly is not sitting when the committee has completed its inquiry, the committee may send its report to the Speaker or, in the absence of the Speaker, to the Deputy Speaker, who is authorised to give directions for its printing, publishing and circulation;

(6) the foregoing provisions of this resolution, so far as they are inconsistent with the standing orders, have effect notwithstanding anything contained in the standing orders; and

(7) nominations for membership of the committee be notified in writing to the Speaker within two hours following conclusion of the debate on the matter.

The motion I have moved and which I understand has been agreed to across all parties is that a select committee be established to further inquire into the establishment of an integrity commission for the ACT through the examination of both the bill the Leader of Opposition has introduced and a government bill that is being drafted. It will be interesting to see with what would appear to be essentially the same drafting instructions how two different drafters within parliamentary counsel have arrived at achieving the same ends. The committee will certainly have the opportunity to examine those questions.

The select committee released its report last year and indicated a willingness in its recommendations to effectively reconvene to examine in detail the legislation so that it met the intent of the recommendations from that committee.

The motion I move today recommends that the select committee consists of the same members as the previous select committee unless a member is unavailable, and that the committee consists of two members nominated by the government, two members nominated by the opposition, one member nominated by the crossbench and that the chair shall be the crossbench member.

The select committee are to be provided with the necessary staff, facilities and resources and are to report by 31 October 2018. As is usual practice, if the Assembly is not sitting when the committee has completed its inquiry the committee may send its report to the Speaker.

Members would be aware in the budget I tabled yesterday that through the appropriation bill for the Office of the Legislative Assembly funding has been provided for the integrity commission. With this time frame in relation to the select committee’s work—and of course depending on the recommendations of that committee and the necessary Assembly processes that will follow—we will be able to debate legislation this year.

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