DEBATES – Thursday 11 May 2017 CONTENTS SPEAKER’S STATEMENTS ..................................................................................................................... 1759 Standing Order 245 Breaches ............................................................................................................... 1759 Parliament House Lifts – Use During Ringing of the Bells .................................................................... 1759 Legislative Assembly Facebook Page ................................................................................................... 1759 MOTION .................................................................................................................................................... 1759 Establishment of an Estimates Committee ............................................................................................ 1759 MOTION .................................................................................................................................................... 1778 Estimates Committee Membership ........................................................................................................ 1778 MOTION .................................................................................................................................................... 1778 50th Anniversary of the 1967 Referendum ............................................................................................. 1778 CONDOLENCES FOR SOLDIER WHO PASSED AWAY ........................................................................ 1782 RESPONSE TO PETITION ....................................................................................................................... 1782 Petition No 7 – Change Gazette S119 to Bring Dan Murphy’s to Darwin .............................................. 1782 MOTION .................................................................................................................................................... 1783 50th Anniversary of the 1967 Referendum ............................................................................................. 1783 PAROLE AMENDMENT BILL ................................................................................................................... 1812 (Serial 21) .............................................................................................................................................. 1812 CONSUMER AFFAIRS AND FAIR TRADING LEGISLATION AMENDMENT BILL ................................. 1816 (Serial 17) .............................................................................................................................................. 1816 LEAVE OF ABSENCE .............................................................................................................................. 1833 Member for Stuart .................................................................................................................................. 1833 PAPERS TABLED ..................................................................................................................................... 1833 Schedule of Government Responses to Committee Reports ................................................................ 1833 Travel Report – Member for Blain ......................................................................................................... 1833 Report of Committee of Members’ Interests .......................................................................................... 1833 MOTION .................................................................................................................................................... 1834 Adopt Report – Report of Committee of Members’ Interests ................................................................. 1834 PAPER TABLED ....................................................................................................................................... 1834 Report of Standing Orders Committee .................................................................................................. 1834 MOTION .................................................................................................................................................... 1834 Adopt Report – Report of Standing Orders Committee ......................................................................... 1834 PAPER TABLED ....................................................................................................................................... 1834 Subordinate Legislation and Publications Report .................................................................................. 1834 MOTION .................................................................................................................................................... 1834 Note Paper – Subordinate Legislation and Publications Report ............................................................ 1834 MOTION .................................................................................................................................................... 1835 Note Paper – Auditor-General of the Northern Territory’s March 2017 Report to the Legislative Assembly ............................................................................................................................................................... 1835 DEBATES – Thursday 11 May 2017 Madam Speaker Purick took the Chair at 10 am. SPEAKER’S STATEMENTS Standing Order 245 Breaches Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, it has come to my attention there have been a number of breaches to Standing Order 245. Please remind your staff and guests that non-members of the Assembly are not permitted on the floor of the Assembly, even when not sitting, without seeking and obtaining approval from my office. The Chamber contains privileged information on members’ desks; if you need your staff to retrieve items for you the Table Office attendants will assist you and your staff. Parliament House Lifts – Use During Ringing of the Bells It has also come to my attention from some members that lifts are being used by non-members during the ringing of the division bells. The lifts are for members use only during the ringing of the bells so they can get back to the Chamber in time. Please advise your staff and guests that members take priority to get to the Chamber when the bells are ringing. Non-members may finish a lift journey but should not call a lift if the bells are ringing and should not assume all members are already in the Chamber. Legislative Assembly Facebook Page Madam SPEAKER: Honourable members, I am pleased to advise of the launch of the Legislative Assembly’s Facebook page today. This page will help keep Territorians in touch with events and information about the Assembly. I encourage you all to ‘Like’ the page. Member for Nelson, do you have a Facebook page? Mr Higgins: He doesn’t have a phone. Mr Wood: There must be a point of order there somewhere. MOTION Establishment of an Estimates Committee Ms FYLES (Leader of Government Business): Madam Speaker, I move that this Assembly appoints an Estimates Committee, and I seek leave to have the terms of the motion as circulated yesterday incorporated. They are on the Notice Paper, but there will be a slight amendment, which will be circulated soon. We have discussed that amendment with the opposition and Independent members; it is just to clarify that proxy members to the Estimates Committee will make a quorum. From time to time this becomes an issue during the estimates process. We want to be as flexible as possible in allowing for the committee to keep going forward and to operate and provide scrutiny of government but be flexible to opposition, Independent and government members who may take ill or have different circumstances. I move that an Estimates Committee and a committee on Government Owned Corporation Scrutiny be established with the terms of reference I just explained and set out in the Notice Paper. I seek leave of the Assembly to have those words incorporated into the Minutes of Proceedings. Those associated notes were circulated yesterday. We have spoken at length in the Assembly about the need to improve openness and transparency as a response to the appalling behaviour we witnessed from the previous government over the last four years. We have already implemented reforms to Question Time, getting rid of Dorothy Dixer questions on Wednesdays. We have allocated more time to the General Business day on Wednesdays and moved it to an earlier time so it is more accessible to those members of the community who wish to attend and provide scrutiny of the community, and the media. Previously GBD would go into the evening on a Wednesday and miss the opportunity for that evening’s bulletin. We are also proposing a number of changes to estimates this year. I look back to 2002, when the then Labor Clare Martin government established the estimates process. This process has been in place for 15 years, serving through Labor and CLP governments. It is an important part of our democracy. 1759 DEBATES – Thursday 11 May 2017 We are making changes so we can be more open and transparent with Territorians. We will review these changes in 12 months to make sure they are workable. We want to see these changes stay in place for another 15 years or more so that we can look back, as an Assembly, and say we played a huge part in providing openness and transparency