Page 1984 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 24 October 1989
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Australian Public Service which works for the ACT Government.
In the case of non-statutory bodies, it is proposed that, as in the past, the more significant bodies will produce their own reports and the minor ones will have their activities covered in the annual report of the executive agency to which they relate. To require all non-statutory bodies to report separately would involve considerable additional printing and publishing at public expense and would provide little additional information to the Assembly beyond that already provided by including such non-statutory bodies in the reports of executive agencies.
For the reasons outlined earlier in this statement, the Government believes that the executive agencies and non-statutory bodies should be given six months within which to report and that such reports be tabled within nine days of their receipt by the relevant Minister.
Recommendation 6 of the select committee's report proposed that guidelines to be followed when establishing penalties to be imposed by legislation be tabled for the information of the Assembly at an appropriate time. The Government agrees that guidelines which cover general penalty fixing principles be developed and tabled. Members should note that this is a task which even the Commonwealth has not undertaken. Accordingly, it may be some time before such guidelines can be developed and tabled.
Recommendation 9 of the select committee's report proposed that a standing committee on subordinate legislation be established. As members will be aware, the Assembly has accepted the Government's proposal to form a scrutiny of Bills and subordinate laws committee.
The Government is pleased to have been able to respond positively to the general recommendations of the Select Committee on the Occupational Health and Safety Bill 1989. We thank the committee for its hard work and for its concern to ensure that the Assembly is kept properly informed of the executive's activities.
MR WHALAN (Minister for Industry, Employment and Education) (8.08): Following on from the Chief Minister, I would like to say that the Government appreciates the role that the committee has played in reviewing this legislation. But, in so doing, I would like to reiterate our position, that the Government for its part firmly supports the Bill as originally presented to the Assembly. We believe that the consultative process has been exhausted and that it is now time to join the rest of Australia in having legislation of this nature.
We accept much of the contents of the select committee's report, including a number of the suggested specific amendments to the Bill and most of the wide-ranging recommendations regarding the implementation of the
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