Sitting And Business
28/09/2010
The Hon. K.L. VINCENT (15:31): I wish to speak briefly to the minister’s motion which, if passed, will effectively shut this place down at 10pm on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. At a glance, it would seem that there is some sense in passing this motion. Common sense dictates that working late into the night after a full day’s work is not very productive or, indeed, effective. In fact, the Motor Accident Commission here in South Australia estimates that fatigue is a contributing factor in approximately 30 per cent of fatal crashes. So it is clear to me that fatigue affects judgment and, therefore, fatigue does not make for good lawmaking.
However, one must keep in mind that much of the work done late into the night on Wednesdays relates to private members’ business, which is too important to skip over or cut short. Of course, that is not to say that government business dealt with late on Tuesday evenings is any less important. It is too central to the lives of South Australians. So, what should we do: sleep less at the risk of being tired and making bad law, or sleep more and make better law? We are seemingly in a bit of a conundrum—or are we?
I ask fellow members: why is it that we start at quarter past two on most sitting days? Surely we can utilise more of our daylight hours. We have heard the Hon. Mr Hood propose that we start earlier, and I must agree that this would go some way to solving this issue. We could also look at reducing the dinner break. I cannot see why we need nearly two hours to digest our dinner when surely an hour would suffice. In fact, the Hon. Mr Hood makes a number of suggestions in his speech on this motion and, while I may not agree with all of them, I welcome the notion of reforming the way in which this place carries on its business.
I understand that the Hon. Mr Parnell has filed an amendment which allows for private members’ business to be debated on a Thursday in the event that it is cut short by the 10 o’clock finish. That makes perfectly good sense to me, and I put on the record that Dignity for Disability will be supporting the Hon. Mr Parnell’s amendment.
