Monique Ryan (Kooyong, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I move an amendment, to the member for Fairfax's amendment, as circulated in my name:

That paragraph (4) be omitted and replaced with the following:

(4) the committee consist of:

(a) seven voting members, three Members of the House of Representatives to be nominated by the Government Whip or Whips, three Members of the House of Representatives to be nominated by the Opposition Whip or Whips, and one crossbench member to be nominated by the crossbench; and

(b) three supplementary (non-voting) members (one Government, one Opposition and one crossbench) who may be substituted from time to time as advised by the Government Whip or Whips (in the case of a supplementary Government member) and the crossbench (in the case of a supplementary non-Government member);

I thank the government for bringing up this important issue. The reliability and affordability of our energy system is a grave concern for all Australians. Every day, in our communities, every one of us hears about constituents' concerns about the cost of power. It is contingent on all of us to ensure that Australians have the cheapest and most reliable form of electricity possible. If that happens to be nuclear, and much of the evidence to date has suggested that that is not the case, then we should move towards making nuclear power part of Australia's energy mix. All of the evidence that we've seen so far suggests that that is not the best option, but I commend the government for taking on board the importance of this issue and recognise, as well, the commitment of the opposition to exploring all options as part of our potential energy mix.

I, and other members of the crossbench, are very much supportive of the establishment of a committee to look into this really important issue. I also commend the member for Fairfax for acknowledging the great importance of the crossbench in this process, and for effectively offering the crossbench the balance of power on this committee. It's a very kind and generous move by the opposition—one which is very much appreciated by me and by my peers. However, there's a bit of a procedural problem here. It is not appropriate for the Opposition Whip to be the person who nominates the crossbench member on a committee such as this. So the amendment that I have circulated today merely cedes the responsibility for the nomination of the crossbench member of this committee to the crossbench. It's the appropriate thing to do. It affords the respect of the crossbench that we deserve and it's a simple measure of good faith on the behalf of both the government and the opposition that I hope all sides will accept.

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