Finance Committee, 28 Jun 2005
Meeting date: Tuesday, June 28, 2005
Official Report
282KB pdf
Interests
I open the 17th meeting in 2005 of the Finance Committee, which will be our last meeting before the recess. I welcome Tavish Scott and congratulate him on his elevation to the Cabinet. I think that this will be his last appearance in his existing role.
I welcome the press and the public and remind everyone to turn off their pagers and mobile phones. No apologies have been received, but there has been a change in the composition of the committee. John Swinburne has resigned his membership of the committee; I will briefly read out a letter from him.
"Dear Des,
Now that my resignation from the Finance Committee has been accepted by Parliament, may I take this opportunity to say that it has been a great pleasure to serve on the Committee under your convenorship since May 2003.
I was indeed fortunate to find myself among such a dedicated Committee, with all its members a pleasure to work with. To this list, I must add Susan Duffy and her staff, including Ross and Jim, plus, of course, Arthur, who has the ability to condense pages of statistics into basic common sense.
Thanks again to all."
That is a very nice letter from John. I will write to him in response, if that is agreeable to members.
Members indicated agreement.
As a consequence of John Swinburne's moving on, I welcome Mark Ballard, who is the new member of the committee. This is his first meeting, so under agenda item 1 I ask him to declare any relevant registrable interests.
I am a member of a range of community and campaigning organisations, which are laid out in the register of members' interests. I have no interests to declare beyond those.
I thank Mark Ballard for his declaration and warmly welcome him to membership of the Finance Committee.