Page 2202 - Week 07 - Thursday, 27 August 2020
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Apart from that, I commend the report to the Assembly, and whether I am in the Assembly or not in the future, I will be looking forward to a government response to this report.
MS CHEYNE (Ginninderra) (10.57): I certainly echo the comments today about the importance of committees and what they can provide and, while it is through committees that we can certainly get to understand and really appreciate issues and find recommendations, it is also through committees that we get to know and understand other members, including, in particular, members who might not be from our party.
Because time is short later this evening, I just want to put on the record, through you, Madam Speaker, that I never, ever thought that Mrs Dunne and I would get along, ever, simply due to just how diametrically opposed we are on some very deeply personal issues that are key to who we are as people. But it has been through committees that I have got to know Mrs Dunne, through you, Madam Speaker, and indeed respect her. I think people would be very surprised just how closely we have worked together, not just in PAC but also in another committee. I think that we have found things that we do have in common, including a mutual appreciation of process, of the standing orders and of word smithing as well.
That is certainly not to say that we agree on everything, but I have got to know her as someone who is thoughtful, genuinely open to suggestions and working together, and she has taken a collaborative approach as chair, including on some very difficult or complicated issues. I put on the record my thanks for that. I do think that Mrs Dunne has summarised the report well. I will not repeat that.
As other members have highlighted, there is a finding and a recommendation that the government members dissent from. Ms Lawder, I do think, has grossly misrepresented the deliberations of the committee on that finding and that recommendation. I never, ever agreed with that finding 8, nor do I think, ever, did Ms Cody—the same with recommendation 6—simply because it is not something that there is any evidence for. Absence of evidence is not evidence. For all the very positive comments that I have for Mrs Dunne, I do find this a really strange finding and one that simply has no basis. This is what I said in every meeting where we discussed it. Despite what Ms Lawder said, this was not a last-minute thing; it was not a last-minute change.
Yes, the finding was amended but the amendments were not put forward by me; they were put forward by the chair to try to get to a point where we might all be able to agree. While I was very open to considering amendments, just as Mrs Dunne had always been very open to considering other suggestions put forward by other committee members, this was not something that I could put my name to. I will speak for Ms Cody. I do not think that Ms Cody felt that she could put her name to this either, simply because it has no basis; and it is very unusual to have included it.
Equally, recommendation 6, which was, again, not a last-minute flip-flop or anything like that, was something that we rarely discussed because we said that we would keep
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