Page 6068 - Week 18 - Thursday, 12 December 1991
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public accountant, whereas if the person had convictions for speeding offences it would not. For the taxi driver, the reverse would apply. It is a test with a definite legal meaning, and we see no reason for this objection.
MADAM TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: I call Mr Collaery.
MR COLLAERY (5.18): You did not give me a title, Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker. You give everyone - - -
MADAM TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: I said "Mr Collaery".
MR COLLAERY: Is that enough?
MADAM TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: Would "Leader of the Residents Rally" suit you, Mr Collaery?
MR COLLAERY: Thank you, yes, that is fine. That is fit and proper, Madam Temporary Deputy Speaker.
This provision is an anachronism because the courts, for years now, have gone well beyond these provisions. Where any scope has been given to a decision maker to exercise a discretion to grant a concession, the courts have traditionally gone beyond these types of provisions. So, they really hold very little for this piece of legislation. At the extremes, they allow capricious decision making and, in the case of the Bar Council in Sydney, the sort of decision making that excluded Wendy Bacon from admission - even though she had had a fall from grace and conceded it, while other persons applying for admission over the years have been allowed their foibles and indiscretions. Not so for Wendy Bacon.
That probably exhibits one extreme. I do not believe that that could happen in this Territory, and I do not believe that the bureaucrats, in proposing this provision, had that sort of thing in mind. But I think, on the other hand, the Attorney goes to the other extreme in saying that there is a provision in the consumer law that allows for a conviction "for faulty workmanship". To my knowledge, there are only civil remedies. I stand to be corrected, but I think what the Attorney means is: Do we have a sly operator out in Fyshwick who is effectively taking short cuts and allowing these ozone depleting substances to not be properly handled at a workshop because he or she is cutting corners?
Mr Jensen: That is covered.
MR COLLAERY: I think that that is covered in other areas, as my colleague Mr Jensen correctly interjects. I think, as Mr Kaine says, subparagraph (f) is a hold-all, and, whilst we did put such a provision into the weapons legislation, I am well aware that one of the prime framers of that Bill was Mr Mason, who is present in the house today - and (f) is his favourite expression. I am sure that he has lent his knowledge - superior knowledge in that regard - to this - - -
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