Estimates Committees Roundup

Penny Sharpe — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 00:00:00 -0600

Did the Coalition actually do any work over the parliamentary recess?

The past two weeks have seen every Minister attend an estimates committee meeting.

Estimates committees are an opportunity for Legislative Committee members from all parties to examine the expenditure for the upcoming year being proposed by the Government.

In practice they have a very wide brief that means that members can ask questions about any matter within a Minister’s portfolio.

It is a golden opportunity to interrogate a Minister and expose any problems within his or her portfolio.

Six months from a state election the Coalition’s participation was lacklustre, lazy and obviously driven by media reports. There was clear cooperation between the Coalition and the Greens who at various times shared the same questions.

I was also surprised by some of the questions asked by cross benches. On several occasions the questions asked by cross benches were on behalf of a particular single interest organisation.

I participated in the estimates committees that examined Local Government, Fair Trading, Western Sydney, Housing, Education and Training, Treasury, Infrastructure, the Hunter, Community Services, Youth, Transport, Tourism, Sport and Women.

Full transcripts can be seen here. Despite the poor questioning by the Opposition, the Ministers provided a good overview of what they have planned. If you have a particular policy interest the transcripts provide a good overview of what is happening across the portfolios.

Labor members of the estimates committee’s interrogated Ministers on what the Coalitions promise to cut 29,000 public servants would mean for NSW. The answers demonstrated that NSW could not sustain these cuts without a massive impact on frontline services.

The Coalition will have to work much harder if they want to present a credible alternative in March 07. With $20 billion worth of promises based on slashing 29,000 jobs it is clear that their shopping list lacks any coherent plan.

HIV/AIDS –the importance of bipartisanship

Penny Sharpe — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 00:00:00 -0600

Last night I attended the 21st Anniversary for ACON (AIDS Council of NSW). It was an evening of both reflection and celebration.

Reflection that in 25 years the HIV/AIDS epidemic has infected 70 million people worldwide and claimed 30 million lives. In Australia we have lost 6500 people, 3600 of them in NSW.

Celebration of how communities, and in the Australian context the GLBT community, can build a strong and dedicated community organisation that was prepared to fight the crisis unfolding around them.

Paul McLeay, the NSW Parliamentary Secretary for Health spoke, as did Justice Michael Kirby, Don Baxter from AFAO and ACON’s President Adrian Lovney.

All of them noted that the Australian experience of HIV/AIDS was different. There are many reasons for this but the most important was that Governments both state and federal were prepared to put public health ahead of politics.

In practice this meant a bipartisan approach that included significant funding for prevention, treatment and research. It also included support programs such as needle exchanges and sexual health education featuring the condom as the front line defence.

The bipartisanship that was exhibited in 1985 seems to be on shakier ground in 2006.

25 years into an epidemic that has yet to find a vaccine or a cure, it is a bipartisanship that must endure to save lives.

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Estimates Committees Roundup

HIV/AIDS –the importance of bipartisanship