Page 1960 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 16 June 1993
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I probably disagree with Mr Westende a little in one of the remarks he made - that perhaps the process should not be too interventionist for the commissioner. His starting point is protection of the environment. That is his brief. If he sees that as being interventionist, so be it; he will be interventionist. That is what it is about. I take Mr Moore's point; I think that enough damage has happened in the last 200 years, or perhaps less than that in the ACT, and we need to redress the balance. I think that he will certainly see his job that way. I agree with Mr Westende when he says that we do need greater accountability, and we do need to be informed. I again give the assurance that the commissioner will be independent. I said, in a media conference when I announced who the person was to be, that I expect that we will get a hard time, and I am quite happy to live with that. I think that we are doing everything to protect the environment. I think our measures are excellent. But we want to be at the very limit of what can be done.
Mrs Carnell had some concerns about the announcement being made before the Bill had been passed. I note that and I think that what she said was accurate. I have no dispute with it. May I say, however, that I had touted the name around and I did take that step in the confidence that this legislation would be widely supported. But I note that caution is needed and I think it would relate to the circumstances of the time if that was to be done on any other occasion. Mrs Carnell, it was simply that we were very eager to move. We think this is an excellent proposal and we wanted to move and not to waste any time. With that in mind, I will wrap up this stage of the proceedings. We will get on to the detail stage.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Bill agreed to in principle.
Detail Stage
Bill, by leave, taken as a whole
MR WOOD (Minister for Education and Training, Minister for the Arts and Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning) (5.45): Madam Speaker, an amendment to clause 15 has been circulated and an explanatory memorandum has also been circulated. I move:
Page 10, subclause 15(11), lines 13 to 16, omit the subclause.
This is in response to a request from Ms Szuty, who saw this subclause being interpreted so as to be able to exercise a power of veto. In order to remove any doubt about that - there was no intention that that should be the case - we can simply remove the subclause. That is the effect of the amendment.
MADAM SPEAKER: Mr Wood, do you wish to table the supplementary explanatory memorandum?
MR WOOD: I will formally table it. It has been circulated.
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