Page 5027 - Week 17 - Tuesday, 11 December 1990
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Clause 32
MR MOORE (11.38): I just noticed, having let clause 31 go through, that we could have raised a question about the $100,000; but I suppose it is a reasonable sum. With reference to the annual report, it is interesting to note from the original Interim Territory Planning Bill that this is going to replace the annual report. I refer also to clause 47 of the Interim Planning Bill that we are now discussing. I have actually noted that I wish to speak to clause 47, but I am quite happy to speak to clause 47 now as well as clause 32; so we can do the two together.
In the original Interim Territory Planning Act, No. 88 of 1988, section 17(1) reads:
The Chief Territory Planner shall, as soon as practicable after each 30 June, prepare and furnish to the Minister a report of the operations of the Interim Authority during the year ending on that date.
Section 17(2) reads:
The Minister shall cause a copy of each report furnished under subsection (1) to be laid before the Assembly within 15 sittings of the Assembly after the day on which the Minister receives the report.
Now, contrast that with what the bureaucracy is trying to get away with here:
The Authority shall, after each 30 June, prepare and furnish to the Minister a report of the operations of the Authority during the year ending on that date.
It does not give any indication about when that report should appear. It is just one of those things; "You can make your report, and hand it down when you are ready". We will get a situation that we have seen here. I think it was Health that brought down a report from a couple of years ago and just recently tabled it in the Assembly. We will get a situation here where there is very little compulsion for a report to be tabled in any time at all. It is more critical, of course, because here we have interim legislation. It is an absolute nonsense.
The changes had to be deliberate. It has moved from the requirement of an annual report set out in the previous piece of legislation called the Interim Territory Planning Act. In fact, of course, clause 47 refers to the repeal of section 17, the one that I just read. We can see no other reason than deliberately giving themselves more room to move. Why is it that the Chief Minister and his department have decided that what they want to do is to report when
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