Ivan Dean, Speeches Index

Wednesday 24 November 2010

JOINT STANDING COMMITTEES ON COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

AND ENVIRONMENT, RESOURCES AND DEVELOPMENT

Mr DEAN ( Windermere ) - Thank you, Madam President, and I look forward to dining with all members during the lunchbreak. Welcome, and it is wonderful to see you all here from Japan. I was there a few years ago and you might recall that I met some of you then.

Madam President, I will be fairly brief in my contribution. I accept that I was absolutely undecided when this debate commenced; I was moving from one side to the other. Currently I am moving towards not supporting it for a number of reasons.

When we debated the sessional committees I was of the view that it was the sessional committees or these committees, one or the other. I did not think that we could satisfy all the committees being re-established as well as the new sessional committees being established in their own right. I felt that there were going to be difficulties there.

You might recall last week when I raised the position of the setting up of a select committee in relation to the PV Fortescue, I was being challenged through that debate as to where that should sit. Some people were telling me, and rightly so, that it should sit with the sessional committees and some were saying that it would be better sitting with the PAC, the joint House committee. Others were saying that a select committee was the right way to go. If these committees are in situ then I would have thought that perhaps some would have probably been saying no, it should sit under the Community Development Committee under the public sector operations or somewhere else.

Mr Parkinson - No, inappropriate.

Mr DEAN - Is it? I do not know but I suspect that there were two other opportunities for some comment to be made on exactly where that inquiry should sit. So it complicates the whole issue and I think it would certainly create some issues.

The member for Murchison raised the question of what would happen if you could not get sufficient takers to sit on these committees if they were re-established. I would say that they would just not be formed because it would be a requirement that there be four from the other place and four from this place and if you cannot get the numbers then I do not think there is any authority or any ability to appoint somebody. I think it is a voluntary position where you identify yourself and therefore, in my opinion, because the numbers are not there then the committees could not be set up.

Mr Parkinson - Well, you have to have a quorum for a meeting and it's either three or four, depending on the circumstances of the meeting.

Mr DEAN - I do not know whether that is the position but the member for Murchison raised that question. The motion very clearly says that the membership of each of the committees 'shall be'. If you could not get those members then they obviously would not exist.

I have had both good and bad experiences of joint House committees. The good experiences would outweigh the bad experiences I have had while sitting on a joint House committee. In fact, there have been some very good debates and some very good findings and recommendations coming from the joint House committee I have been on for some time.

I was undecided, but I think we should give the sessional committees a go to see how they do operate. But I am not absolutely convinced and I will be interested to hear what the Leader says regarding the issues that have been raised and satisfy myself that there is a need to set up these committees. So I will wait with interest to listen to the Leader's closing debate, if that is what he opts for.

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