Page 1982 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 24 October 1989
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OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY BILL 1989 - SELECT COMMITTEE
Report
Debate resumed from 6 July 1989, on motion by Mr Stefaniak:
That the recommendations be agreed to.
MS FOLLETT (Chief Minister) (8.00): Mr Speaker, members will be aware that on 6 July 1989 the Select Committee on the Occupational Health and Safety Bill 1989 presented its report to the Assembly. As well as making proposals which are specific to the Occupational Health and Safety Bill, the committee's report also contains recommendations of a more general nature.
Accordingly, the Government will be making two responses to the report. My statement tonight will respond to the broad policy issues raised by the select committee's report. My colleague the Minister for Industry, Employment and Education will respond separately to those proposals in the report relating directly to occupational health and safety matters.
Recommendation 3 of the select committee's report proposed that all Acts passed by this Assembly commence within six months. The Government agrees that in the normal course of events commencement within six months is a desirable objective. However, there will be occasions on which this will not be practicable. For example, some legislation will need to be staged in its implementation. As a result, certain parts of an Act will require longer than six months before commencement. Similarly, the Assembly will no doubt deal with legislation which forms part of a uniform legislation package with the States. When this occurs the timing of the commencement of the legislation will be dependent upon events outside the control of the ACT Government.
Against this background the Government believes that we should adopt a practice similar to that established by the Commonwealth. This involves the inclusion in each Bill which does not specify its date of commencement of a provision which results in either the automatic commencement or the repeal of the Act after a certain period. The period involved would be determined on a case by case basis but would be generally six months, unless staged implementation, uniform laws with the States or other factors require a longer interval before commencement. The reason for choosing a delayed commencement will be included in the explanatory memorandum for the Bill. Accordingly, the Government proposes that appropriate provisions of the kind I have described be inserted in government legislation introduced into the Assembly from mid-November 1989.
Recommendation 4 of the select committee's report proposed that bodies report within three months of the end of each financial year and that Ministers table reports within six
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