Page 1804 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 1 May 1991
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The attack on the health services determination of fees and charges was mounted last week by Mr Berry. He drew attention to the first thrust of Labor's attack, which was the obvious inconsistency between the ministerial statement that Mr Bissett had been removed from financial responsibilities and the making of these financial charges. That, as I say, is the first thrust of Labor's attack. The second thrust is of a purely legal technical nature. I hope that the Minister will pay attention to Labor's attack on this and obtain Law Office advice. We see a real difficulty with these fees and, indeed, with previous fees set over many years. I suspect that at the end of the day this Assembly is going to have to deal with this by legislation.
Mr Speaker, Labor has moved disallowance of the fees purportedly made under the Health Services Act 1990 on 28 March 1991. The power of the Assembly to disallow regulations on fees comes, of course, from the Subordinate Laws Act 1989. The determination of these fees, notified in Special Gazette, S21 of 28 March 1991, was purportedly made by Mr Bissett, pursuant to section 48 of the Health Services Act. That section provides:
The Minister may, by notice published in the Gazette, determine fees and charges for the purposes of this Act.
I repeat: "The Minister may", not the Minister or an officer authorised by the Minister. There is no statutory authority, Mr Speaker, in the Health Services Act for the Minister to delegate this power. The fees in question were clearly made under Mr Bissett's hand, not under the hand of the Minister.
There has been a long history of this problem in relation to health service fees. Under the former Community and Health Service Act 1985, the power to set fees was vested also in the Minister in almost identical terms. Section 78 provided:
The Minister may, by notice in writing published in the Gazette, determine fees and charges for the purposes of this Act.
Fees in this Territory have repeatedly been set under the hand of an official, rather than under the hand of the Minister. The Standing Committee on Scrutiny of Bills and Subordinate Legislation has repeatedly drawn attention to this problem. In reports No. 11 of 29 June 1990 and No. 12 of 14 August 1990 the committee asked for advice on the source of power for the General Manager to make regulations. That was a request in relation to the determination of fees made under the former Community and Health Service Act because, of course, the Health Services Act was enacted only in the last few weeks of sittings in 1990.
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