Page 3034 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 14 September 1993
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What do you think this Assembly is - a sort of sausage factory? The fact is that it is not. This Government treats the processes of democracy with contempt when it brings legislation forward with this short timeframe.
Madam Speaker, we drew attention on that occasion to the possibility of mistakes being made, and what do we have here? Evidence that, in fact, mistakes were made, mistakes that could have been extremely serious.
On that day we did everything we possibly could to indicate that that Bill was being considered prematurely. I took a point of order, Madam Speaker, you will recall, under standing order 172, concerning bringing on a Bill in the same sitting fortnight, and you ruled against me. My colleague Mrs Carnell moved to adjourn the debate. That motion was defeated by eight votes to nine, with Mr Moore voting with the Government. I am pleased to say that Ms Szuty and Mr Stevenson supported the Opposition. I then moved a motion in the Assembly condemning the processes we were undertaking at that time. I moved:
That the Assembly notes with concern the indecent haste with which the Government is bringing forward legislation for premature debate after its introduction.
There was much derision from those opposite about our lack of ability to deal with the legislation in time. Ms Follett interjected:
Stop pumping petrol and read your Bills.
That was a reference to the Federal election campaign.
Mr Kaine: That is good advice for the Chief Minister.
MR HUMPHRIES: It is certainly good advice for the Chief Minister. The question is, Madam Speaker: Why did not the Chief Minister read her own Bills? If she had read her Bills, or Mr Berry had read his Bills, or Mr Connolly had read some of Mr Berry's Bills, maybe they would have picked up this omission, the result of which is that for a period of some months in this Territory dental therapists have been without proper protection, and consequently citizens of the Territory who used their services might have been without proper protection in the course of going about their daily business.
Mr De Domenico: Probably Mr Connolly did read Mr Berry's Bill and let it go through anyway.
MR HUMPHRIES: That could be. Madam Speaker, we find it richly ironic that this Bill is necessary tonight to repair the hole in that Act. We are sitting here tonight, in a sense wasting the resources of the Assembly, undoing the damage which this Government did to its own legislation in its haste last February.
The Scrutiny of Bills Committee has examined this legislation and has identified that in fact it contains an element of retrospectivity. It points out that retrospectivity appears to operate beneficially to individual dental therapists, and that, of course, is quite true. I, however, draw the Assembly's attention to the possibility that, if someone had actually brought an action against a dental therapist between 1 March 1993, which is the date from which this Bill becomes
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