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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 2 Hansard (29 February) . . Page.. 451 ..

MR DE DOMENICO (Minister for Urban Services and Minister for Business, Employment and Tourism) (10.34): The Government supports the motion. I thank Ms Follett for her assurance. I was never in any doubt that that committee would be reporting in time for the Government to be able to have the Bill debated by the appropriate time, seeing that it is a national competition Bill. I thank Ms Follett for her comments.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

Debate resumed from 14 December 1995, on motion by Mr Connolly:

That the report be noted.

MS FOLLETT (Leader of the Opposition) (10.35): Mr Speaker, I will speak very briefly on this matter. It was a report which was presented by my colleague Mr Connolly. I note that the Government has responded to the report. I also note that that response is very positive, in that the Government appears to have accepted the overwhelming majority of the recommendations in that report. In particular, Mr Speaker, the Government has adopted recommendation 6, they are proceeding on recommendation 5, they are discussing with the Commonwealth recommendation 2 - which, of course, leads on to recommendations 3 and 4 - and recommendation 1 is awaiting a report from the Australian Law Reform Commission. That commission will be reporting on the reference on complaints against the Australian Federal Police and the National Crime Authority. We have yet to hear from the Government any indication of when that report might be expected, but I accept that we must await the ALRC report.

The Government was seeking discussions with the Commonwealth about the policing arrangements and the legislative arrangements, and we have not yet had a report from Mr Humphries on those matters. However, I understand all too well that this is a matter which has been under debate for some years now - in fact, ever since the ACT took over responsibility for policing. It is not a straightforward matter. It is one where I believe this Assembly has to act to protect the best interests of the Territory and to ensure that we get the best possible policing service for the Territory as well. I am confident that that will be Mr Humphries's view in proceeding with those discussions with the Commonwealth. We look forward to his further report on those matters in due course.

To conclude, Mr Speaker, on behalf of Mr Connolly, I welcome the Government's response. I would encourage Mr Humphries to keep the Assembly very well informed on all of the developments in relation to the recommendations in the report.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

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