Page 4558 - Week 15 - Tuesday, 14 December 1993
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case other members of the profession, to blackball somebody on the basis of ill-defined criteria. I would be happier, and my party would be happier, if clear terms were spelt out explaining what is meant by being a fit and proper person to remain on the roll of barristers and solicitors. I would be happier for us to specify exactly what we mean by behaviour which is unacceptable. To some extent this Bill does that, but not to the extent that it has been possible to dispense with the phrase "a fit and proper person". I make that point in passing. We do not propose to amend the Bill, but I indicate that that is our ongoing concern about those kinds of phrases.
Madam Speaker, the Bill does provide for, I think, a high degree of accountability on the part of the ACT's legal practitioners. It ensures, as the Minister indicated in his presentation speech, that the disciplinary process for legal practitioners in the ACT is responsive, efficient, open to public scrutiny and well publicised. Some of the provisions dealing particularly with the disclosure of solicitors' names, and so on, are significant developments which, I think, we can support. Madam Speaker, I commend this Bill to the Assembly.
MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General, Minister for Housing and Community Services and Minister for Urban Services) (4.44), in reply: I thank Mr Humphries for his support for the legislation. As I said in the introductory speech, this is rather like the legislation we debated last week amending the Supreme Court Act. This is a first strike at reform of the legal profession. This process, as Mr Humphries said, comes out of a long process of consultation going back some nine years. One would normally hope that the consultation process would result in quicker results. From here on we need to further reform the legal profession, particularly with a view to bringing in more lay involvement in disciplinary matters. I have indicated previously that we see benefit in tribunals that involve not just the profession but increased lay membership. There is a lot of work being done around Australia on reform of the legal profession. The Trade Practices Commission has just handed down a major report. The New South Wales Government has just introduced a very major piece of reform, and the Commonwealth Government has appointed Professor Ron Sackville, now of the Sydney bar, to advise it on reform of the legal profession.
The view of the ACT Government is that we will not be going through a further major inquiry process about what to do, as much as looking at what other States have done and looking at how to do it. We want to move fairly swiftly on this process. I would expect that next year we will see a fairly major exercise in bringing the ACT into line with reforms in other States, to the extent that we are not already there, bearing in mind that in some areas - such as the absence of scaled fees, permission to advertise legal services, and the abolition of a distinction between barristers and solicitors - we are already in the forefront. I thank members for their support for this long awaited and significant first strike in the reform process.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Bill agreed to in principle.
Leave granted to dispense with the detail stage.
Bill agreed to.
Sitting suspended from 4.46 to 8.00 pm
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