Page 4481 - Week 15 - Tuesday, 19 November 1991
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Logic tells us that many will see clauses of the Bill as unjust, unworkable and discriminatory. They will simply ignore its dictates and become the new law-breakers. If questioned about what the Government sees as their offences, many would say that they were not being discriminatory; it was for some other reason that they did not hire someone or that they let their accommodation to another. Thus, this Bill would have the effect that many people would no longer tell the truth. There are many inconsistencies that go to the very heart of this Bill. The Bill is there to enhance rights, yet in many cases it becomes an attack on rights.
Mr Deputy Speaker, as the majority of members of this Assembly support the Bill, my suggestion is to adjourn the Bill for one week to sort out the pages and pages of amendments, corrected amendments and corrected, corrected amendments, as well as three pages of an entirely new thrust to the Bill from Mr Collaery, which I have not even read yet - it was tabled at only 8.30 tonight.
Mr Collaery: There might be a colleague in Western Australia you want to talk to.
MR STEVENSON: Mr Collaery says that there may be a colleague in Western Australia. Certain legislation was introduced as a separate Bill in Western Australia, but he is trying to introduce it as an amendment to this Bill. I intend to move the adjournment in the detail stage.
MS FOLLETT (Chief Minister and Treasurer) (10.55), in reply: I thank all members for their comments on this Bill. It is certainly a piece of legislation that is worthy of the close attention of all members and it has had it. Mr Deputy Speaker, rather than go through a lot of the detail, in my closing remarks on the in-principle stage I will simply refer to the major points made by members. Where other points are the subject of amendments I will deal with those points at that stage. So, my remarks will be fairly general at this stage.
A number of members expressed a view about who should claim responsibility for this Bill. I think it is a quite healthy sign that they all want to, but I think it is worth saying that nobody in the Alliance Government had access to the Cabinet documents of the first Labor Government. You deny that at your own risk. It is a fact, Mr Deputy Speaker, that my Government took a decision to have this legislation drafted. We took that decision in 1989. We took that decision following upon the release of a discussion paper in November 1989. The press announcement that accompanied that discussion paper said, "The Chief Minister was releasing a policy discussion paper which outlines details of the legislation currently being drafted for the Government". So, I place that on the record. The former members of the Alliance cannot deny that it was the Labor Government that began this process.
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