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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 3 Hansard (27 March) . . Page.. 691 ..

MR MOORE: I move:

Page 2, line 4, clause 4, omit "is", substitute "has effect as if it had been".

Page 2, line 7, clause 5, omit "is", substitute "has effect as if it had been".

Page 2, line 10, clause 6, omit "is", substitute "has effect as if it had been".

Page 2, line 13, clause 7, omit "is", substitute "has effect as if it had been".

Proposed new clause -

Page 2, line 20, after clause 7, insert the following new clause:

"Application

8. Sections 4, 5, 6 and 7 have effect for the period of 9 months commencing on the day on which this Act is notified in the Gazette.".

Mr Speaker, these amendments have the effect of putting a sunset clause in the Bill so that the effect of this particular amending legislation will last for only nine months. There has been some discussion in the chamber, Mr Speaker, that nine months may not be long enough because it would not allow such a trial to operate over the summer months. My understanding is that Mr Stefaniak will move an amendment to my amendment which will change that to 12 months. That is acceptable to me, Mr Speaker. Therefore, I think that what we will see is a piece of legislation that does put some extra power into the hands of the Minister for a year to allow a trial to go ahead.

It has been very interesting listening to the debate on this Bill, Mr Speaker. It seems to me that a trial of this nature will actually answer many of the questions that have been raised. A whole series of very serious questions have been raised. It may well be that those questions will be answered in the literature search even before such a trial goes ahead, and it may well be that the Minister then determines - or this Assembly, through a disallowance procedure, determines - that no trial will proceed, because of the literature search, because of the review, because of the information about the baseline. If there is going to be an assessment of whether things can be improved by a change in hours or by a change in the approach taken by the AHA or whatever, you have to have a baseline to start with, something to compare with. When we read the literature review and when we see the baseline, it may well be that we then determine that it is not necessary to proceed to a trial. Nevertheless, I think this issue has been appropriately brought to the Assembly and I look forward to my amendments being passed so that the power is in the hands of the Minister for a limited period.

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