Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Regional Investment Corporation Bill of 2017, and I move the second reading amendment as now, I hope, circulated in my name:

(1) Clause 4, page 5 (after line 3), after the definition of start day, insert:

vacancy, in relation to the office of a Board member, has a meaning affected by subsection 20(3).

(2) Clause 16, page 14 (lines 2 and 3), omit the clause, substitute:

16 Membership

The Board consists of:

(a) the Chair; and

(b) at least 2, and no more than 4, other members.

(3) Clause 20, page 15 (after line 23), at the end of the clause, add:

(3) For the purposes of a reference in:

(a) this Act to a vacancy in the office of a Board member; or

(b) the Acts Interpretation Act 1901 to a vacancy in the membership of a body;

there are taken to be 4 Board member offices in addition to the Chair.

(4) Clause 29, page 18 (lines 15 to 17), omit the clause, substitute:

29 Quorum

At a meeting of the Board, a quorum is constituted by:

(a) at any time when the Board consists of 3 Board members—2 Board members; or

(b) in any other case—3 Board members.

This amendment will be seconded by the member for Whitlam, and I understand he'll reserve his right to speak. There's a golden rule when representing Her Majesty's opposition, and that is that, when considering government legislative proposals, we should always stick to good policy, look at the quality of the bill being presented to the parliament to measure the extent to which it reflects the policy which is trying to be achieved by the government and, of course, look at the extent to which it upholds the standards and traditions of the Westminster system. The proposal in this bill is bad policy, and the bill being presented to the House, while it might reflect the government's intentions, does little to uphold the standards we expect in this place, particularly as they relate to ministerial and executive accountability.

The Regional Investment Corporation is another of the current agriculture minister's boondoggles. It's a big pork barrel. It's designed to do one thing only, and that is to recover Nationals party votes in just one part of the world in this instance. That part of the world happens to be Orange.

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