The Liberals and Greens have teamed up to reduce scrutiny of Peter Gutwein’s Budget.
The Liberal-Green alliance means that only one
member of the Opposition can be a member of Estimates Committees – despite a
precedent which covers 20 years that the Opposition gets two members.
Leader of Opposition Business David O’Byrne said
it was disappointing that the Greens would allow the Government to reduce
scrutiny of the Budget.
“The Greens have shown their lack of sense by
running a protection racket for the Liberal Government,” Mr O’Byrne said.
“If the Greens are to be consistent with their
calls for scrutiny and integrity they would have supported keeping Budget
scrutiny intact, and not supported the Liberals reducing it. This is a
no-brainer.
“Yet again we have the Greens exposed for what
they really are – a political party playing politics instead of holding the
Government to account.
“It is a sad day for the Parliament that the Greens voted with the Liberals to undermine the Estimates process.”
David O’Byrne MP
Leader of Opposition Business in the House of Assembly
