Page 4318 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 30 November 1994
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necessarily support such a proposal at a referendum. I hope to have discussions about this matter with the Chief Minister, and I indicate that we are prepared to discuss the way in which this would happen. It is the intention that we ensure that this provision is workable. To do that, we need to have some mechanism for resolving minor and technical issues on the floor of the Assembly rather than through a referendum process.
Madam Speaker, this Bill has come late in the process because it was dependent upon the passage of the Referendum (Machinery Provisions) Bill, which occurred in the previous sitting week. It is unfortunate that we have not had more time for this to be put on the table, debated and considered by the people of Canberra; but that was unavoidable. It is also a pity that this legislation is necessary at all; but it clearly is. Clearly, it is necessary and quite essential so that we are never again faced with the position of the Government attempting to, in effect, manipulate the electoral process to suit its own ends. That is the object of this exercise. I hope that members will support that concept, even if they did not support the Hare-Clark system originally, at the referendum in 1992.
Debate (on motion by Ms Follett) adjourned.
HEALTH COMPLAINTS (AMENDMENT) BILL 1994
Debate resumed from 24 August 1994, on motion by Mr Moore:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General and Minister for Health) (10.44): The Health Complaints Commissioner, with the legislation establishing that office, was one of Labor's election promises in the last ACT election campaign. In line with many, including a couple that we dealt with last night, it has been delivered. The Health Complaints Commissioner has been in place for some time now. The first set of figures that he released was quite encouraging, in the sense that a lot of people are becoming aware of the office; he is dealing with complaints in an expeditious manner; and it is already becoming part of the understanding of the health environment in the Territory that the commissioner is there. There have been a couple of matters of controversy, as inevitably occur in the debate about health, where either the Government or the Opposition have said, "The Health Complaints Commissioner is there and should be asked to look into a matter". Indeed, in a recent incident, separately, both the Government and the Opposition referred a matter to the Health Complaints Commissioner. So the commissioner is there. That is an accepted part of the framework of public health in the Territory, with support from all sides.
In this legislation Mr Moore proposed some amendments to the health complaints legislation, which basically required signage to be placed in any health care premises, in effect, telling people of their rights under the legislation and advising them to go to the unit. The Government has no difficulty, in principle, with those proposed amendments by Mr Moore. We have looked at the details, and we propose two changes. One is that we should refer to this as the Commissioner for Health Complaints, not the Health Complaints Unit, which was the phraseology Mr Moore was proposing.
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