Page 1066 - Week 06 - Thursday, 27 July 1989
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
are all other members of the community, and the law in regard to freedom of information is, of course, equally applicable to members of this Assembly as are any other laws - for example, the payment of parking fines or any other matters where the general public and the community are required to comply with that law. The freedom of information law is no different, and members of the Assembly will be required to comply with that.
Mr Moore: We will have to change our law.
MS FOLLETT: Indeed, as Mr Moore says, perhaps the law needs to be changed. That, I think, is a completely separate issue from the issue of whether members of this Assembly are subject to the law. There is no doubt that they are, and they have rather more opportunities than other members of the community have to obtain access to documents and to information; they are therefore in a privileged position; and to suggest that they should be exempt from the application of the freedom of information charges I think is quite wrong, Mr Speaker.
Compulsory Retirement
MR HUMPHRIES: My question is to the Chief Minister. Given the Government's stated commitment to ending discrimination, can the Chief Minister say what steps the Government will take to end discrimination on the basis of age? Will the Government, for example, move, as are the governments of New South Wales and Western Australia, to outlaw compulsory retirement?
MS FOLLETT: The question places me in some difficulty because it is not a matter on which the Government has a policy and it would be, I think, to pre-empt any consideration by the Government of that matter, but I am happy to advise that we do not have that matter under consideration. It is my belief - I give it as a personal opinion and, as I say, not as a policy of this Government - that with a youth unemployment rate in the ACT which exceeds the national average there is in fact very little case to be made for extending the working life of people who have already fulfilled a substantial career.
My preference would be to have a look at the problems of young people coming into the work force and to look at the kinds of industries that are required to employ those young people, to look at job opportunities for them and at ways of assisting them to find employment. That would be the area to which I would give priority, as I say, rather than to extending the working life of people who have enjoyed a substantial career.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .