MOTION: Consideration Forthwith - Attendance of Legislative Council Members who are Ministers of the

Mrs ARMITAGE (Launceston ) - Mr President, I have not had the chance to look at the motion. Having heard it, it would have been nice to have had a chance to examine it more closely. There are two Liberals members as well in the Chamber and perhaps the government needs to assess that. I agree with the other members. We cope quite well in this Chamber with question time not having had a minister. The fact is that sometimes we may have to wait a while for an answer, but it does manage. I am concerned the management of this Chamber could be impacted by the other place wishing to have the Leader down there at question time. When we have briefings of a morning it is important to have the Leader there to have some consistency. We know who is in charge and how it is run, and it would be very difficult if the Leader was not there because question time was going longer. Dr Goodwin - There is a limit on how long I am down there; I leave at 10.50 a.m. Mrs ARMITAGE - That is the difficulty. I am inclined to agree with the other members in wanting to hear some of the answers, but I am inclined to err on the side of caution and want this Chamber to run more smoothly.