Tuesday, 13 July 2004

13 Jul 2004 Estimates Committee A—Legislative Assembly 1 TUESDAY, 13 JULY 2004 Estimates Committee A—Legislative Assembly ESTIMATES COMMITTEE A—LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY Estimates Committee A Members Ms R.G. Nolan (Chair) Hon. N.I. Cunningham Mr R.G. Hopper Ms C.T. Male Mr M.F. McArdle Mr L.J. Springborg Mr C.A. Wallace In Attendance Hon. R.K. Hollis, Speaker Mr N. Laurie, The Clerk Mr M. Hickey, Director, Corporate and House Services Ms K. Newton, Deputy Clerk and Clerk of Committees (Acting) Mr C. Atkinson, Manager, Financial and Administrative Services The committee commenced at 8.27 a.m. The CHAIR: I declare the meeting of Estimates Committee A open. I welcome Mr Speaker, public officials and members of the public who are in attendance today. The committee will examine the proposed expenditure contained in the Appropriation (Parliament) Bill 2004 and the Appropriation Bill 2004 for the areas as set out in the sessional orders. The organisational units will be examined in the following order: Legislative Assembly; Queensland Audit Office; Ombudsman; Crime and Misconduct Commission; Commissioner for Children and Young People; Public Service Commissioner; Department of the Premier and Cabinet; Treasury Department; Office of Urban Management; Sport and Recreation Queensland and the Queensland Academy of Sport; Department of Public Works, including the Racing Directorate; and the Department of Housing. The committee will suspend proceedings for the following breaks. There will be a 15-minute break from 10.45 until 11, lunch will be from 1 until 2, and there will be a 15-minute break from 5 until quarter past 5. I remind members of the committee and Mr Speaker that the time limit for questions is one minute and answers are to be no longer than three minutes. A 15-second warning will be given at the expiration of these time limits. An extension of time may be given with the consent of the questioner. The sessional orders require that at least half the time is to be allotted to non-government members. I ask departmental witnesses when they are called to identify themselves before they answer a question so that Hansard can record that information in the transcript. In the event that those attending here are not aware, I point out that the proceedings are similar to parliament to the extent that the public cannot participate in the proceedings. In that regard I remind members of the public that, in accordance with standing order 195, strangers, that is the public, may be admitted to or excluded from the hearing at the pleasure of the committee. In relation to media coverage of the hearing, the committee has resolved that television and sound broadcast be allowed for the chair's opening comments and the introductory statements of Mr Speaker and each minister. I also ask that all mobile phones be switched off. I declare the proposed expenditure for the Legislative Assembly and Parliamentary Service to be open for examination. The question before the chair is— That the proposed expenditure be agreed to. 2 Estimates Committee A—Legislative Assembly 13 Jul 2004 Mr Speaker, would you like to make a brief introductory statement or do you wish to proceed straight to questions? Mr SPEAKER: A statement, thanks, Madam Chair. The CHAIR: If you could please keep the statement brief. Mr SPEAKER: The 2004-05 budget estimates for the parliament are the seventh for which I am directly responsible, and I feel privileged to appear before the committee today. I appear today in my role as the person charged with responsibility for preparing the budget for the parliament and supervising the management of the Parliamentary Service. As committee members would be aware, the Appropriation (Parliament) Bill seeks to provide funding for salaries and allowances for members of the Legislative Assembly and funding for the Parliamentary Service, which provides administrative and support services to the Assembly. The total appropriation sought for parliament 2004-05 is $58.221 million, which is an increase of approximately 3.6 per cent over last year's appropriation. The increase is required primarily to meet enterprise bargaining salary increases for staff and salary increases for members. Since becoming Speaker I have delivered improvements in five key areas: parliamentary buildings, members' access to information technology, the quality of electorate office support, the promotion of community awareness of the parliament, and the performance of the Parliamentary Service. Parliamentary buildings have improved through programs such as the Annexe refurbishment and the Parliament House stonework program. In the year just completed there have been significant improvements in security and access at the front entrance to the Annexe, as well as the refurbishment of the conference and media facilities on level 5 of the Annexe. Members' access to information technology has been dramatically improved through the provision of Internet, email and other office tools and more recently the provision of laptop computers to each and every member. Electorate office support has been significantly enhanced following the introduction of the assistant electorate officer initiative and the introduction of improved office accommodation and equipment. Community awareness of the parliament has been raised through a number of initiatives, including the introduction of weekend tours—that is, Saturdays and Sundays—and the holding of a number of special exhibitions, the relocation of portraits, increased participation in Queensland Week through the Parliament House open day, audio broadcasting of the parliament over the Internet, the regional sitting of parliament in north Queensland and the youth parliament program. Finally, there have been a number of management and operational reforms that have improved the performance and opportunities for staff at Parliament House. In this budget I will continue to build on those achievements. Precinct security and safety will be enhanced through a number of projects, including the redevelopment of the loading dock and the upgrade to the Parliament House emergency evacuation systems. Airconditioning systems and infrastructure will also be upgraded. Access to the parliament's Internet site will also be improved to better address the needs of clients and the wider community, while the pilot programs for electronic petitioning and audio broadcast of the parliament will continue and be refined. In April 2005 the Queensland Parliament will host the Third Commonwealth Parliamentary Association Youth Parliament, with international participants from a number of Commonwealth countries attending. As always, I would like to thank the Premier and the Treasurer. Throughout the 2004-05 budget development process, discussions concerning funding for the parliament have been conducted in a positive and very cooperative manner, with appropriate recognition of the principles underpinning the separate appropriation bill currently before the parliament. I wish the committee well in its deliberations and look forward to any constructive comments it may have. The CHAIR: Thank you, Mr Speaker. I call the Leader of the Opposition with the first question for the Speaker. Mr SPRINGBORG: Thank you very much, Madam Chair, and Mr Speaker. Mr Speaker, I refer to your answer to question from non-government members No. 3 regarding the number of assets and the value of assets which have been written off in the last financial year. I commend you, Mr Speaker, on the security upgrades around Parliament House, but it does concern me that there has been $12,649 worth of silverware and cutlery disappear over the last 12 months. Is there any indication of how much of that silverware and cutlery may have been actually stolen? Mr SPEAKER: There isn't. The only thing I can say in that respect is that teaspoons have a habit of not being available sometimes. There isn't any indication of any actual theft going on. It does say in my answer to your question that we do have a distinct problem. When you have a huge number of functions, which we are doing now, and they are in varied areas then the stocktake process becomes a little more difficult because it is a moving feast. Even during that time it is very difficult to ascertain where each item of cutlery or silverware is. Some seven or eight years ago, as you would be aware, there were very few functions and most of that silverware and cutlery was kept in two places, which was the 13 Jul 2004 Estimates Committee A—Legislative Assembly 3 Strangers and the Members. As you know, in the cafeteria it is mostly stainless steel. It is not silverware. The difficulty now is that we have a number of function areas where we do have catering. I think we have to improve on that, but I don't think there is any indication that there is a large-scale theft going on as far as the assets of this parliament are concerned. The only other way I can do it is put everybody through a metal detector on the way out, and I think that would be a fairly difficult thing to do. Mr SPRINGBORG: I do hope that with subsequent stocktakes these items do turn up, but it does concern me that this value of silverware and cutlery has disappeared. I do believe that we need to be more diligent in trying to address that, because the problem of souveniring has been an issue around here. Souveniring is actually theft. As we have more functions that are going to be conducted here—I welcome that, because I think it is important to open the place up—we need to make sure that it is impressed upon people when they walk into this place that souveniring is theft and you just cannot walk out with stuff. I have had people say to me in the past, 'I have a teaspoon from Parliament House.' Well, that's theft.

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