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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 4 Hansard (16 April) . . Page.. 901 ..

MR MOORE (11.19): Mr Speaker, I had the pleasure of serving with Mr Berry and Mr Hird on the Select Committee on Workers Compensation Provisions. That committee did deal with this issue in a number of ways and came out with a response suggesting the statutory authority. I think there were very good reasons for doing that.

Therefore, it was with interest that I learnt that the Government's response to our recommendation was that it did not accept this recommendation. Normally when the Government responds by saying that it does not accept recommendations, my immediate reaction is "tough", and that is how we deal with it. But in this instance the Government actually suggested quite specific reasons why it thought the approach that we had taken was negative. It presented an alternative approach that would meet the issues which we were trying to meet and which had been clearly explained in the committee's report. We were trying to resolve these particular issues; this was the way that we had tried to do it. The Government came back and said, "The difficulty with the approach that you are taking to resolving those issues is that it will exacerbate problems because it will take the responsibility away from line managers". I think that was the main thrust of the argument. The Government said, "Therefore, what we are proposing is an alternative approach that will achieve what you are trying to achieve and make sure that these issues are monitored; but at the same time we will not take that responsibility away from line managers".

The eventual wash-up is the legislation that we have before us today. I think this is an acceptable solution. I understand that it has also been supported by the relevant unions and the council itself. I think this is actually an improvement on what had been recommended. I believe in the process that we went through - taking this issue to the committee, it reporting back, the Government responding in a positive way to a range of the committee's recommendations and, when it did not accept this recommendation, providing an alternative which made sense. I also appreciated the fact that Mr De Domenico made available his staff and members of his department to brief me on these issues and explain in detail why they wanted to operate in this way. That is why I will be supporting this legislation today.

MR DE DOMENICO (Minister for Urban Services and Minister for Business, Employment and Tourism) (11.22), in reply: Mr Speaker, I thank members for their support. In particular, I thank members for the process that we have gone through to get what I believe to be the best possible result in an area that everybody is concerned about.

The Occupational Health and Safety (Amendment) Bill 1995, on which debate was adjourned late last year, will amend the principal Act to give the existing Occupational Health and Safety Council the additional responsibility of giving the Minister advice on workers compensation and occupation rehabilitation matters in the private sector. The amendment that I intend to put before the Assembly today seeks to further expand that role to include the provision of advice to the Minister on workers compensation and occupation rehabilitation matters in the public sector as well.

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