Bills

Parliamentary Committees (Referral of Petitions) Amendment Bill

Final Stages

Consideration in committee of message No. 133 from the House of Assembly.

The Hon. C. BONAROS: I move:

That the House of Assembly's amendment be agreed to.

The amendment is really a technical one in nature. It was identified between the houses that in order to capture all the petitions and inquiries that had already been referred to legislative review, there had to be a transitional date. It turns out that the transitional date that was nominated was a few days off what we should have had in there, so we have simply changed that date to ensure that it is reflective of all the petitions that have been referred already to the Legislative Review Committee. Save and except for the ambulance ramping committee, all of those other committees can now be redirected to a new inquiry.

If we did not move the amendment, it would have meant that one or two of those would have been left languishing with the Legislative Review Committee while we got through our extraordinary workload, and that would have been an injustice to the people who brought those petitions to this place to have to wait while other inquiries are being dealt with more promptly. That is not a reflection on the Legislative Review Committee or its magnificent Chair, but rather the workload—

The Hon. R.B. Martin: That's me you are referring to.

The CHAIR: Interjections are out of order.

The Hon. C. BONAROS: That was an opinion. It is a reflection of the workload of the committee. In all seriousness, it is not appropriate for us to be sitting on committees because there are so many waiting there to be dealt with. This transitional amendment simply seeks to correct the record in terms of the dates. It has been fleshed out in the other place and I think there is agreement by all that it ought to be supported.

The Hon. N.J. CENTOFANTI: I rise very briefly to say that, on behalf of the opposition, we wholeheartedly support this amendment to make sure that all the petitions are indeed captured.

Motion carried.