Page 5294 - Week 17 - Thursday, 13 December 1990
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the reach of some of this material. All I can say is that I will accept the point made by the Minister for Health and see that this matter has an early referral. I will make a statement to the Assembly at our next sitting as to what I have done with this issue.
I think Mr Connolly was right when he said that this provision is parented by other Acts. One such one, as Mr Connolly knows, is section 92 in the Legal Aid Act. It is currently having, for me, what I believe to be the unintended result that no-one on that commission can divulge to me matters relating to legal aid issues where I might, as Attorney, quite properly want to help a party. I cannot be told the facts so that I can intervene. So, there are some unintended situations. It is a matter that requires review. I take Mr Berry's point. I hope that in the next sittings I will be able to announce, with the agreement of the chair of the Law Reform Committee, the Honourable John Kelly, or through some other process, an examination of this type of provision.
In the meantime, I think the privacy issue, particularly for patients - people undergoing procedures - might be the prudent way to go. We need to leave this style of provision standing until we can look at it with the rest of those laws dealing with instrumentalities that hold a lot of personal information about us.
MR BERRY (10.24): It is regrettable that we have found ourselves in a position where contention about these provisions is being debated across the floor. However, on the positive side, it is good to see that the Ministers opposite have recognised the need to examine further the secrecy provisions of this legislation. I welcome what I have described earlier in the debate on these issues as the warm noises from Minister Humphries - - -
Mr Collaery: Oh, a bit more than that.
MR BERRY: Mr Collaery says that they are more than that in his own case. I accept that very early in the new year we will have a statement from the Government about the future of those sorts of provisions in this legislation, and perhaps about those sorts of provisions which exist in other ACT legislation as well. I welcome that, Mr Deputy Speaker. We look forward to some positive results in that respect.
The Opposition will continue to pursue this issue because secrecy provisions which can be described as draconian have to be ruled out. I accept that those provisions need to be examined closely by people in the light of day, and that they have to be restructured very carefully. I look forward, Mr Deputy Speaker, to a positive response from the Government in the new year.
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