Page 2404 - Week 09 - Thursday, 17 September 1992
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MR HUMPHRIES: Indeed. We just want the titles; that is all we want. We want a realistic expectation of what they will be.
Mr Lamont: Remember ACIL, boys.
MR HUMPHRIES: You might make a joke about this and say, "We enjoy keeping you in the dark"; but it does not help good government if the first thing we see of legislation is when you slap it on the table and say, "Here it is. Go and work it all out". If you are serious about good government, you tell people - not just us, but the community - what you are doing. You telegraph the reforms you want to enact, you give the community time to consider the framework of those changes, and then you bring them into the Assembly and introduce the framework.
I am not pretending that we are all perfect. I have no doubt at all that the Alliance Government fell down on occasions as well. But the point is that we have now come through more than three years in the life of the ACT's self-government arrangements, and I think it is about time we started getting more realistic about the way we present these sorts of things. The fact is that we all need to know what we are doing. There is a great deal of consultation that we in opposition and on the crossbenches need to do when legislation comes forward. We are entitled to do that on the basis that we know how to conduct that consultation realistically, and we can do it only with an accurate and realistic legislative program. I hope that the Government's performance in these matters will improve.
MS ELLIS (11.23): I value very much the debate this morning. It gives us an opportunity to discuss the Government's legislative program in a little bit more detail. I would like to make a couple of comments on what Mr Humphries said. He commented on being given notice of matters on the list for the Attorney-General, Minister for Housing and Community Services and Minister for Urban Services. I point out that, of the first priority matters under that heading, the Fair Trading Bill has been introduced, the amendment to the Consumers Affairs Act has been introduced, the Judicial Commission Bill has been tabled, the Judicial Commission (Consequential Provisions) Bill has been tabled, and the Adoption Bill has been tabled.
Mr Humphries: That is five out of 21.
MS ELLIS: Without being interrupted, I would also like to draw some attention to a couple of others on that list and expand upon them. Out of that first priority list, the amendment to the Evidence (Closed-Circuit Television) Act 1991 has been referred to in passing in this house prior to today. The Bill will allow evidence to be given on closed-circuit television in sexual assault and other cases concerning children in the ACT. This has already been trialled here quite successfully. This practice is leading Australia in its innovation and its use, and the introduction of this Bill will make permanent, so to speak, this practice of allowing such evidence to be given by children in court when the magistrate, the prosecution or the DPP, or whoever is involved at the time, believes that it is to the child's advantage to give evidence in such a way. This is groundbreaking legislation. As I said, it has already been trialled successfully in the ACT. I am very pleased to see it on that first priority list, and I look forward to the legislation coming through.
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