Page 1792 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 18 August 1992
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DISCHARGE OF ORDER OF THE DAY
MR HUMPHRIES (9.23), by leave: Madam Speaker, I move:
That order of the day No. 4, private members business, relating to the Consumer Affairs (Amendment) Bill 1992, be discharged.
Mr Connolly: But it was such a well drafted Bill, Gary.
MR HUMPHRIES: I know. It was a great Bill, was it not? Luckily, Madam Speaker, the Government has now produced its own Bill. I point out that the Minister has been very fulsome in saying that it is wonderful that the Labor Government - the Labor team, as he puts it - has finally produced this piece of legislation. I feel a bit like an Australian standing in one of the stands at Barcelona and watching our prize runner running into the stadium towards the finishing line and crossing in a blaze of glory, only unfortunately to realise that he is the last runner to arrive in the stadium and that all the others had finished half an hour beforehand. It is great to see us coming home. It is a pity that it could not have happened a bit sooner.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
BUILDING (AMENDMENT) BILL 1992
Debate resumed from 18 June 1992, on motion by Mr Connolly:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
MR KAINE (Leader of the Opposition) (9.25): I must say, Madam Speaker, that when I read this Bill it was almost as though it had been drafted by the Liberal Party, and I wondered whether it was yet another one of those Bills that were carried over from 14 months ago when the drafting instructions were issued by the Liberals when they were in government.
The thrust of this Bill is, in the Minister's own words, to "reduce regulation by government". It makes it easier for people to do minor works around their properties. Until now, it was required that they go through the full gamut of approvals before they could begin relatively minor things. It covers things up to and including fences, pergolas, timber decks and the like and, at the smaller end of the scale, it gets down to - I am quoting from the Minister here - "a simple letterbox or an ornamental garden wall". In the Minister's presentation speech he even went as far as saying that we could even contemplate that a garden gnome, if permanently fixed, could be illegal if not approved under present legislation. The present legislation, Madam Speaker, is quite absurd in that people cannot do minor things around their properties, like these things that are mentioned here, without going through this full approval procedure.
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