Roger Price (Chifley, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Indeed—and hold the role of parliamentary committees very seriously. I acknowledge that under your chairmanship that committee has always taken a bipartisan approach, which is a compliment to you as chair, to your deputy chair and to all members of the committee. I would hope that you share my interest in ascertaining which chamber will be supporting this new committee and ensuring that it has adequate new net resources to discharge its new and most serious responsibility.

I remind the House that this is the parliamentary Joint Committee on the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity—a very important new innovation and a net addition to the committee system. We want it to do its job well, but we do not want it to suffer because of stretched resources or an inadequate budget and do a perfunctory job. As much as we would say how important the members of the committee are to a successful parliamentary committee, it goes without saying that having top committee staff and an adequate budget are fundamental to a successful committee. If you could clear that matter up, Mr Deputy Speaker, I would be most grateful.

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