Page 655 - Week 02 - Thursday, 21 February 1991
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Clause 13
Amendment (by Mr Collaery) agreed to:
Page 10, lines 7 to 9, omit the subclause.
Clause, as amended, agreed to.
Clause 14 agreed to.
Clause 15 agreed to.
Clauses 16 and 17, by leave, taken together, and agreed to.
Clause 18
MR STEVENSON (5.39): On page 13, subclause (4) states:
Where an offence against this Act is committed by a supplier or dealer in relation to a contract to which this Act applies, any other person who has derived or would, if the contract were carried out, expect to derive a direct or indirect financial benefit from the contract is guilty of an offence -
What that says is that any other person who is going to receive a financial benefit can be guilty of an offence. When you look at the - - -
Mr Collaery: Read the rest of it.
MR STEVENSON: I will. Subclause (4) continues:
and liable to the same penalty as is prescribed for the first-mentioned offence, unless the other person establishes that reasonable precautions were taken and due diligence was exercised -
Mr Collaery: That is the bit.
MR STEVENSON: That does not solve the problem at all. What you have done is that you have lumped together all sorts of people who work within a company, including installers, company staff, subcontractors, temporaries, and who knows who else. Once again, I am concerned that the Bill has not been looked at in detail.
MR COLLAERY (Attorney-General) (5.41): Mr Speaker, I rise as a courtesy to the house rather than to Mr Stevenson. He has had since last August to seek advice from the Government Law Office, which we generously give on request. I do not believe that the matter requires much explanation. The house fully understands that in that provision there has been placed a catch-all so that there can be a possible flow-on offence. But there is sufficient exculpation there with the words:
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