Page 808 - Week 03 - Thursday, 2 April 2020
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number of times recently, in these challenging times democracy is more important than ever and transparency is more important than ever. It is something that we have really grappled with in recent weeks, as we have sought to move incredibly fast in the work that needs to be done to meet the deadlines that have to be met, and to be as open as possible about it.
We have also been very conscious of the need for input from others. Certainly, I have been very open in my calls to the community and in the phone calls I have made to members of the opposition, the shadow ministers that I relate to. I have said that, as a minister, I am not seeing everything that is happening in the community because there is so much happening that there are things happening that we have not anticipated. So I am very open to hearing about those things.
That is why, in today’s sitting, we were very happy to support the establishment of a committee. That was passed today. With the reporting that Mr Coe has proposed here, we are very happy to accept it. It provides an opportunity for members of the Assembly to look at what is going on. It also gives members the opportunity to ask questions and help to keep an eye on our community as we move through these times that none of us have experienced before.
On that basis, as I say, we are happy to support it. We will need to think about what the reporting looks like. In some areas it may be as simple as having no activity. If we do not give any leave permits then that will be the answer. But if some are used then we will think about the right way to report that. With some of these things, because we have not done them before, we do not necessarily have datasets on them. We will need to do a little bit of thinking about it. It is important that we continue to have that degree of transparency; and, as we move quickly, we also need to balance that with members having the right to ask questions and the right to seek information. That is why we are happy to support this amendment today.
MR COE (Yerrabi—Leader of the Opposition) (4.44): I welcome and appreciate the support from the Labor Party and the Greens for this amendment. We are happy to support Mr Barr’s amendment to my amendment, given the questions about what the definition of “impact” might be with regard to this reporting. Mr Rattenbury flagged that there are still some questions or issues to resolve regarding what reporting looks like. This is a good one on which to chat with the opposition and with others to try to work out what is the best way of depicting the previous month’s activities. The opposition is very happy and very willing to be involved in this process.
Mr Barr cited national cabinet as being a reason why it is very hard to work collaboratively with the ACT opposition. I simply note that there are some ministers here who are doing a very good job of working collaboratively with members of the opposition, so that excuse does not stand. It just does not stand: saying that everything is commercial-in-confidence and everything is cabinet-in-confidence. It just does not work that way. There are many things that are not.
The ACT government has extraordinary scope to liaise with the opposition. How is it that the government can come in here and say, “We’ve been chatting with the MBA, the HIA, the Property Council, the Planning Institute et cetera,” but they cannot chat
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