Page 1507 - Week 05 - Thursday, 18 April 1991
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owners or agents and is not transferred to the Government. In order to minimise the cost to the ACT taxpayer, annual fees will be introduced to make this scheme cost recoverable. However, this Government is also conscious of the need not to unnecessarily burden the private sector. Therefore, the fees imposed under this legislation will be modestly scaled, up to a few hundred dollars, and will relate to the size of the building concerned.
Close consultation has been maintained between officers of my department and ACT community services and health during the preparation of this Bill. Health officers have been involved at every step of the process, and the health board is at present taking complementary action in having legionnaires' disease listed as a notifiable disease in the ACT. Mr Speaker, similar legislation has been, or is planned to be, introduced throughout Australia, and officers of my department have consulted with their colleagues in the other States and the Commonwealth in the drafting of this Bill.
Finally, several of the buildings likely to be affected by these measures are buildings owned or leased by the Commonwealth. To ensure uniformity of controls against this deadly disease, the Government intends to request the Commonwealth to make a regulation under the ACT (Self-Government) Act to bind itself to the terms of this legislation.
Mr Speaker, this Bill is an important piece of legislation for the ACT. Legionnaires' disease is a largely avoidable disease, and I am sure that the public will welcome our action in introducing legislation to control and hopefully prevent outbreaks in the ACT. I now present the explanatory memorandum for the Bill.
MRS GRASSBY (10.55): Mr Speaker, 15 months later - after all, it was our Bill - I move:
That the debate be now adjourned.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
UNLAWFUL GAMES (AMENDMENT) BILL 1991
Debate resumed from 16 April 1991, on motion by Mr Collaery:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
MR CONNOLLY (10.55): Mr Speaker, this is a great day in the legislative history of this Assembly. We have actually got a piece of government business on the Thursday of a sitting week, and, more surprisingly, it is a piece of government business that was introduced this week. We have actually managed to achieve passage of an Act within a week.
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