Page 3105 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 12 September 1990
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
Mr Jensen: What about clause 36? Have a look at clause 36, Terry.
Mr Connolly: Indeed, Mr Jensen, who also fancies himself as a clever reader of legislation, also fails to look at the point that the entire cost of the administration is to be met from the interest on the trust account. It is impossible for you or any presiding officer to make instant rulings on these points, and it is most inappropriate for the chief law officer to make hasty points and purport to direct, as chief law officer in the Executive, your conduct as Speaker, the presiding officer of the legislative Assembly. Party affiliation or allegiance has nothing to do with this. Your role as presiding officer is to conduct the proper proceedings of the legislature and not to listen to hasty and ill considered points of order from the Executive Government.
Mr Berry: On a point of order, Mr Speaker: I raise the issue that you have ruled on the matter and these people have to be kept in line. We need to get on with the issues of private members' business which are before this house. This is a strategy by these people opposite to block this.
Mr Collaery: Have you ruled, Mr Speaker?
MR SPEAKER: Mr Collaery, I believe that under the circumstances I have ruled on all these Bills before the Assembly. I would hope that we would have the matter resolved before any more of these Bills are brought before the house. Unfortunately, the situation has arisen where there is a matter concerning this before the house. We have taken a course of action on several Bills in this matter. I would ask Mr Connolly to proceed.
MR CONNOLLY: Mr Speaker, I do not intend to take up a lot of the time of the house this morning because there are other pressing matters of private members' business, and if the Executive had allowed these Bills to be presented and put on the table we would have dealt with them by now. Instead, we have been wasting our time on points of order which are fruitless.
As I was saying, the purpose of this Bill, as is common with Bills in other States, is to provide that the administration of the Bill is paid from the interest on bonds held by the board. The other important reform is a condition report which must be filled in and lodged with the rental bond board at the time the bond is lodged. That condition report ensures that disputes between landlord and tenant over the condition of the premises, which are the most common forms of disputes which lead to a disagreement on who gets the bond, have a firm evidential basis.
The Bill provides a procedure for the payment out of the bonds, and that is that the bond would normally go to the tenant on termination of the tenancy unless the landlord
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .