Page 4316 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 7 December 1993
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CHIROPRACTORS AND OSTEOPATHS (AMENDMENT) BILL 1993
[COGNATE BILLS:
OPTOMETRISTS (AMENDMENT) BILL 1993
PHARMACY (AMENDMENT) BILL 1993 [NO. 2]]
Debate resumed from 23 November 1993, on motion by Mr Berry:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
MADAM SPEAKER: Is it the wish of the Assembly to debate this order of the day concurrently with the Optometrists (Amendment) Bill 1993 and the Pharmacy (Amendment) Bill 1993 [No. 2]? There being no objection, that course will be followed. I remind members that in debating order of the day No. 1 they may also address their remarks to orders of the day Nos 2 and 3.
MRS CARNELL (Leader of the Opposition) (8.03): Madam Speaker, it is wonderful, from the perspective of everybody in this house, that these Bills have finally reached this stage. The Bills bring the ACT into line with the mutual recognition agreement; but they do more than that. They greatly improve the capacity of the registration boards to do their job. Registration boards are set up, in the ACT and in other States in Australia, for a very important reason, and that is to protect the public. That is their only job. They make sure that professionals in their various spheres comply with codes of conduct, that they act in ethical ways.
In the professions, things that are not ethical are not necessarily illegal. It is very important for professional boards to have powers to discipline members of the professions. Up until now most of the Acts covering professionals have been very light on in terms of the disciplinary sanctions they can bring against professionals. These three Bills in front of us today go a long way to overcoming those problems. From the time we pass these pieces of legislation, the boards will be able to do the job they have been put in place to do, that is, to protect the public and to bring forward sanctions against professionals who do not act in the interests of the community. For a very long time the boards have been lobbying to achieve these ends.
The Chiropractors and Osteopaths (Amendment) Bill does a little more. It also will be supported by the Liberal Party because it will bring chiropractors and osteopaths together under one Act and will make sure that an osteopath and a chiropractor are well defined under the Act. That is determined by the sorts of qualifications various people have. I know that the chiropractors have been lobbying for this for a long time, so we are very supportive of the Bill.
It is the second time this year we have seen the Pharmacy Act amended, and I have to ask how much money it costs to redraft an Act, even though I accept that it is an appropriate approach to ensure that all of these Acts - - -
Mr Berry: Why can you not say, "The Government has done a great job"?
MRS CARNELL: No, the Government stuffed up.
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