Page 1064 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 20 March 1991
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has two pieces of legislation to act as stopgaps - to use Mr Humphries' devastating retort - to cover the situation until the comprehensive legislation is in place. We say, on this side, that it is better for the citizens of this Territory to have protection now than to do nothing until, when? Three months? Six months? Nine months? The Minister just cannot say.
We are told that drafting instructions have been sent out. We all know the complexity that this type of food legislation will involve. If the Minister could say, "It will be in before the finish of these sittings, it will be in before the July recess", perhaps we could say, "Okay, we will not proceed with this Bill because we know that there will be protection in three months' time". If he could say definitely that it would be in the third quarter, we might even have a think about it; but he has no idea of when this legislation will be in place and, going on the track record of this Government, it could be late this year, if we see it at all during the life of this Government - this Government marked by Ministers who are publicly associated with use-by dates.
We are proud to say to the citizens of Canberra that we have prepared a Bill that is not perfect; that it is not the most recent model national uniform food Bill which is proving so difficult that this Government can give us no firm idea of when it will be introduced. We have picked up a model that works, that will prevent what is happening this very day and this very moment in supermarkets around this Territory - that is, Canberra citizens being sold food that is considered unfit to be sold across the border in Queanbeyan. We have proposed a Bill that will give the citizens of this Territory that protection, at least that protection, until we see this comprehensive uniform food Bill.
Mr Humphries says that the Opposition can only carp. We are quite likely to be supportive of that legislation when it comes in. If you look at the record in this chamber, we are more often than not supportive of government legislation where it is updating and improving ACT legislation. We do not object on principle to every government measure. This uniform food Bill, if and when we see it in the life of this Assembly, is more likely than not to be supported in large proportions by this Labor Opposition. But we are not prepared to say that the citizens of the Territory should have no protection in the meantime. I think it is very sad that the Government wants to take a cheap political point on this and leave the people of this Territory unprotected in a way that citizens of other States and Territories are not so unprotected. Why is it that Mr Humphries is prepared to put substandard food on the tables of Canberra families?
Mr Jensen: Why didn't Rosemary fix it in the seven months she was in charge?
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