Page 2056 - Week 07 - Thursday, 16 June 1994
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The committee found that, for the most part, this Bill was an appropriate way of responding to the royal commission's recommendations and would be a sound way of addressing the issues, particularly in a pre-emptive fashion, to prevent there being a problem in the future in this Territory. The committee made comment on the nature of the specific provisions in this Bill which apply only to the families of deceased Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and suggested that the measures in that respect were very sound measures, very good measures, but that consideration should be given by the Government to extending those provisions over a period of time to all members of the community, who of course would be able to benefit from access to such things as more involvement in the coronial process and an automatic entitlement to coroners' reports.
The other recommendations made by the committee are of a relatively minor nature but touch on such things as cooperating with national bodies such as the Institute of Criminology on the collation of information relating to coronial proceedings and continuing to work with such groups as the National Association for Loss and Grief, which expressed before our committee some concerns about the second part of the focus of the Bill - that is, the review of coronial proceedings in the ACT - and whose representations were taken on board by the Minister's department in ensuring that the process is more amenable to those who are suffering loss and grief in the process of coronial proceedings. There is more work to be done in that respect, but I am confident that the relationship between the department and that association will be a fruitful one in overcoming other difficulties that might arise in that process. Madam Speaker, I commend the report to the house and again thank those persons I thanked in respect of the previous report for their assistance in preparing this report.
Debate (on motion by Mrs Grassby) adjourned.
PUBLIC ACCOUNTS - STANDING COMMITTEE
Statement by Presiding Member
MR KAINE: Madam Speaker, I seek leave of the Assembly to make a statement on government accounting, reporting and accountability and discussions of the Public Accounts Committee in New Zealand between 3 and 5 May 1994, to present the statement and to move a motion in relation to the paper.
Leave granted.
MR KAINE: Madam Speaker, members of the Public Accounts Committee visited New Zealand during the first week in May for the purpose of meeting with government officials, professional and business organisations and client bodies of government agencies to assess the effectiveness and ramifications of the wide-ranging changes in government accounting, reporting and accountability that have been implemented in New Zealand. In the course of the three days in Wellington, the committee had extended meetings with the New Zealand Society of Accountants, the Council of Social Service, the Federation of Voluntary Welfare Organisations, a New Zealand Controller and Auditor-General, the Stock Exchange, the professor of accounting at Wellington University, the Chambers of Commerce, the senior lecturer in public policy at Wellington University, the New Zealand Treasury, the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, and the Inland Revenue Department.
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