Page 224 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 23 February 1994
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As Mr Berry identified, these concern the declarations at clause 5 and the regulations at clause 12. The notice went on to state:
These will relate to matters including: which types of places will be non-smoking; what conditions will apply where smoking is permitted; what signage requirements will apply where smoking is and is not permitted.
In particular, the views of managers, staff and users of the following types of places are sought: places where goods or services are sold or delivered; restaurants, cafes and coffee lounges; places licensed under the Liquor Act whose primary business is not the sale of food, particularly where those premises are shared with other types of facilities; hotels, motels and serviced apartments offering overnight accommodation; remand centres, nursing homes, hostels and other multi-unit residential facilities; educational and instructional institutions; businesses which cater for private functions; indoor recreation and entertainment facilities; places whose major clientele is under the age of 18 years; exhibition or display areas open to the public; places used for commercial child care; places used for music, drama and other performances; public transport facilities.
A request was made that comments be received by Monday, 14 February 1994 - just over a two-week timeframe. As of Wednesday of last week, following the closing date for the receipt of submissions, 10 only had been received from that vast array of organisations which the Minister requested consultation with. This does not appear to me to be full community consultation with all those groups and organisations likely to be affected by the implementation of this legislation.
Madam Speaker, the Government and the Minister for Health will no doubt argue that referring this Bill to an Assembly committee will unnecessarily delay the introduction of the legislation. In fact, the Minister has already argued that way. However, we need to remember, as I said earlier in my remarks, that the referral of a Bill to an Assembly committee is a normal parliamentary process which occurs in other jurisdictions in Australia generally more frequently than it occurs here. There have been occasions in the past when this Assembly has decided to refer legislation to Assembly committees, the Adoption Bill being a case in point. Our standing orders enable Bills to be referred to Assembly committees following the in-principle debate, as I said at the beginning of my remarks. This is precisely what I am doing now in moving this motion. I trust that the Assembly will decide to refer the Smoke-free Areas (Enclosed Public Places) Bill 1993 to the Conservation, Heritage and Environment Committee, which will enable appropriate community consultation, discussion and debate to take place on what is, as I have said earlier, landmark legislation for the ACT and for Australia. If we are to pursue the issue of establishing smoke-free areas in enclosed public places more extensively in the future, it seems to me to be important that we enable full community discussion and debate at the beginning of the process. We are then best placed to take further appropriate action in the future. I commend the motion to the Assembly.
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