Page 5296 - Week 17 - Thursday, 13 December 1990
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The Scrutiny of Bills Committee drew attention to clause 58. It said:
Clause 58 provides that
The Minister or a person authorised in writing by the Minister may, at any reasonable time, enter and inspect any premises occupied or used by the Board.
To prevent entry by impostors into what could be very sensitive areas, perhaps the clause should provide that any person authorised by the Minister should have an identity card or other formal identification issued to him or her. Perhaps it should also provide that entry may be refused if the identity card or other formal identification is not produced.
For that reason, I have suggested this very simple and easy amendment, which would have the clause read:
The Minister or a person authorised in writing and wearing a photographic identity card validated by the Minister may, at any reasonable time ...
I think it is a fairly simple exercise to implement what the Scrutiny of Bills Committee suggested. It provides very little difficulty. But what it does draw our attention to - and I take this opportunity to say so - is the fact that this Bill has been rushed through in order to, for some reason, save face - if he has some - for Mr Humphries. In fact, a series of things like this have been done. It was a simple amendment. It ought to have been done by the Government - or at least provided for as an amendment by the Government to follow up that recommendation. I cannot for the life of me see why it has not been done, other than because of this same problem we have had with these rushed through Bills when there was no reason for it to be a rushed through Bill.
What we should have had was Mr Humphries announcing some time ago that he would establish a Board of Health. And, if he could not get the legislation together with enough time for consultation, he should have said that we will deal with this legislation in eight weeks time or put the legislation on the table and let it sit over this Christmas period. That would have been the logical way to do it and we could have come up with a decent piece of legislation instead of legislation that we are already sitting here tonight planning to amend.
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