9679 LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL Tuesday 22 June 2004 ______ The President (The Hon. Dr Meredith Burgmann) took the chair at 10.30 a.m. The Clerk of the Parliaments offered the Prayers. The PRESIDENT: I acknowledge that we are meeting on Eora land. ASSENT TO BILLS Assent to the following bills reported: Bail Amendment (Terrorism) Bill Stock Diseases Amendment (Artificial Breeding) Bill Greyhound and Harness Racing Administration Bill Health Legislation Amendment Bill Filming Approval Bill COURTS LEGISLATION AMENDMENT BILL Bill received, read a first time and ordered to be printed. Motion by the Hon. Tony Kelly agreed to: That standing orders be suspended to allow the passing of the bill through all its remaining stages during the present or any one sitting of the House. Second reading ordered to stand as an order of the day. FILMING APPROVAL BILL Message received from the Legislative Assembly agreeing to the Legislative Council's amendments. INDEPENDENT COMMISSION AGAINST CORRUPTION Report The President tabled, pursuant to the Independent Commission Against Corruption Act 1988, the report entitled "Report on Investigation into Conduct of the Hon. J. Richard Face", dated June 2004. Ordered to be printed. MINISTRY The Hon. JOHN DELLA BOSCA (Special Minister of State, Minister for Commerce, Minister for Industrial Relations, Assistant Treasurer, and Minister for the Central Coast) [10.34 a.m.]: I inform the House that on 3 June 2004 Her Excellency the Governor accepted the resignation of the Hon. Anthony Bernard Kelly, MLC, as Minister Assisting the Minister for Natural Resources (Lands). On the same day the Governor appointed the Hon. Anthony Bernard Kelly, MLC, as Minister for Lands. BUDGET ESTIMATES AND RELATED PAPERS Financial Year 2004-05 Motion by the Hon. Don Harwin agreed to: That, during the present session and unless otherwise ordered: 1. Each speaker on the motion to take note of the budget estimates, except the mover and the Leader of the Opposition, is to be limited to 15 minutes. 9680 LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 22 June 2004 2. Commencing on Wednesday 30 June 2004, debate on the motion to take note of the budget estimates for 2004-2005 is to take precedence after debate on committee reports on Wednesdays. 3. The debate on the budget estimates is to be interrupted after two hours. The interrupted debate is to stand adjourned and be set down on the business paper for the next day on which it has precedence. GENERAL PURPOSE STANDING COMMITTEE NO. 5 Government Response to Report The Hon. John Della Bosca tabled the Government's response to the recommendations of Report No. 19, entitled "Local Government Amalgamations", tabled 16 December 2003. Ordered to be printed. AUDIT OFFICE Report The Clerk announced, pursuant to the Public Finance and Audit Act 1983, the receipt of a performance audit report of the Auditor-General entitled "Managing Natural and Cultural Heritage in Parks and Reserves: National Parks and Wildlife Service", dated June 2004. The Clerk announced that it had been authorised that the report be printed. TUNNEL VENTILATION SYSTEMS Return to Order The Clerk tabled, pursuant to the resolution of the House of 1 June 2004, documents relating to tunnel ventilation systems received on 15 June 2004 from the Director-General of the Premier's Department, together with an indexed list of documents. Return to Order: Claim of Privilege The Clerk tabled a return identifying documents for which privilege is claimed and which are available only to members of the Legislative Council. PRIMARY INDUSTRIES BUDGET DOCUMENTS Return to Order The Clerk tabled, pursuant to the resolution of the House of 2 June 2004, documents relating to the Department of Primary Industries merger received on 16 June 2004 from the Director-General of the Premier's Department, together with an indexed list of documents. LEGISLATION REVIEW COMMITTEE Report The Clerk announced, pursuant to the Legislation Review Act, the receipt of a report entitled "Legislation Review Digest No. 9 of 2004" dated 21 June 2004. The Clerk announced further that it had been authorised that the report be printed. PETITIONS Freedom of Religion Petition praying that the House reject legislative proposals that would detract from the exercise of freedom of religion, and retain the existing exemptions applying to religious bodies in the Anti-Discrimination Act, received from Reverend the Hon. Dr Gordon Moyes. 22 June 2004 LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 9681 Hotels and Clubs Smoking Restrictions Petition requesting support for legislation requiring hotels and clubs to be smoke-free, received from the Hon. Dr Arthur Chesterfield-Evans. Alcohol Sale Control Petition praying that alcoholic beverage sales be restricted to existing outlets, and that opening hours be reduced, received from the Hon. Greg Pearce. Anti-Discrimination Legislation Petition requesting support for the Anti-Discrimination Amendment (Equality in Education and Employment) Bill and the Anti-Discrimination Amendment (Sexuality and Gender Diversity) Bill, received from Ms Lee Rhiannon. CountryLink Rail Services Petition opposing the replacement of CountryLink rail services with bus services in rural and regional New South Wales, and calling on the Government to reverse its decision to close the Casino to Murwillumbah rail line, received from Ms Lee Rhiannon. Alcohol Sale Deregulation Petition requesting exclusion of liquor sales outlets from the National Competition Policy Amendments (Commonwealth Financial penalties) Bill, received from the Hon. Dr Peter Wong. BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE Withdrawal of Business Private Members' Business items Nos 31, 38, 73, 75, 80 and 87 outside the Order of Precedence withdrawn by Ms Lee Rhiannon. EXAMINATION OF BUDGET ESTIMATES Financial Year 2004-05 The Hon. JOHN DELLA BOSCA (Special Minister of State, Minister for Commerce, Minister for Industrial Relations, Assistant Treasurer, and Minister for the Central Coast) [10.51 a.m.]: I move: 1. That the budget estimates and related papers for the financial year 2004-2005 presenting the amounts to be appropriated from the Consolidated Fund be referred to the general purpose standing committees for inquiry and report. 2. That the committees consider the budget estimates in accordance with the allocation of portfolios to the committees. 3. For the purposes of this inquiry any member of the House may attend a meeting of a committee in relation to the budget estimates and question witnesses, participate in the deliberations of the committee at such meeting and make a dissenting statement relating to the budget estimates, but may not vote or be counted for the purpose of any quorum. 4. The committees must hear evidence on the budget estimates in public. 5. Not more than three committees are to hear evidence on the budget estimates simultaneously. 6. When a committee hears evidence on the budget estimates, the Chair is to call on items of expenditure in the order decided on and declare the proposed expenditure open for examination. 7. The committees may ask for explanations from Ministers in the House, or officers of departments, statutory bodies or corporations, relating to the items of proposed expenditure. 8. The report of a committee on the budget estimates may propose the further consideration of any items. 9. That a daily Hansard record of the hearings of a committee on the budget estimates be published as soon as practicable after each day's proceedings. 10. The committees have leave to sit during the sittings or any adjournment of the House. 9682 LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL 22 June 2004 11. That initial hearings of the committees be according to a schedule prepared and circulated by the Leader of the Government. 12. The committees may hold supplementary hearings as required. 13. The committees present a final report to the House by Thursday 18 November 2004. The Hon. DON HARWIN [10.51 a.m.]: The Opposition seeks to make some amendments to the motion moved by the Hon. John Della Bosca on behalf of the Government. I move: That the question be amended as follows: (1) Paragraph 5: omit "3" insert instead "2", (2) Paragraph 10: omit the paragraph, (3) Paragraph 11: omit all words after "That" and insert instead "the Leader of the Government is to provide to each committee, by 29 June 2004, a schedule outlining the attendance of relevant Ministers to appear before each committee, for the committee's consideration". (4) Paragraph 13: omit "Thursday 18 November 2004". Insert instead "the last sitting day of the second sitting week in 2005". The amendments to the motion are fairly straightforward and are, in fact, incremental rather than radical. Effectively, the purpose of the amendments is to give the general purpose standing committees a greater degree of flexibility, to allow them to be, as it were, masters of their own destiny in the way they deal with estimates. I will speak briefly to the four amendments. The first amendment reduces the number of committees that can sit simultaneously from three to two. I do not think anyone will barrack more loudly about this very sensible change than the Government backbenchers. They will be closely followed by the staff because it is a matter of administrative simplicity to reduce from three to two the number of estimates committees that can sit at any one time. A number of crossbench members have expressed to the Opposition a wish that the number of simultaneous estimates meetings be reduced, so they too will be pleased about these proposed amendments. Under the current resolution relating to general purpose standing committees, members can attend, observe and participate, except in a deliberative sense. Therefore, it would be desirable if not too many estimates committees were running at the one time. I am sure that this very simple change will also make the life of the Government Whip much easier in that he will not have to schedule participation in three committee hearings at the one time.