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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 8 Hansard (27 June) . . Page.. 2382 ..

MRS CARNELL: We passed the legislation and then referred it to a committee for monitoring.

Mr Moore: After it had been to a committee, and we then referred it back to a committee.

Mr Kaine: Mr Speaker, I raise a point of order. Mr Moore seems to think that this is a two-way debate between him and Mrs Carnell. Can you tell him to be quiet? He has had his say, and he was wrong.

MR SPEAKER: Boring, is it not? Order! You have already had your opportunity to speak, Mr Moore. You can speak again if you wish, but Mrs Carnell is speaking at the moment. I uphold the point of order.

MRS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, the reason that we did that, as Mr Moore and others will remember, is that a majority of the Assembly believed that it was important to put something in place. Some of us believed that the mental health legislation did not go far enough and some of us believed that it was not as holistic as it should be, but as a whole we decided that we needed to put something in place. We put a sunset clause in the legislation to ensure that it was looked at. The impact of that legislation was looked at by the Assembly, which referred the Bill and other mental health matters straight to the Social Policy Committee.

The approach that we are taking here is identical. It is different when the issue is different. The motion we passed this morning said categorically that we would look at "further" approaches that we could take. I will quote exactly so that I will not get it wrong. It said that we would look at "further retail policy measures that can be taken to maintain diversity in the ACT retail market". That is exactly what the committee will do. It will not inquire into the Trading Hours Bill 1996. I do not see that anywhere on the list. I do not see anything that says that the committee will inquire into the Bill. I do not even see - - -

Mr Moore: Try "any other related matters".

MRS CARNELL: You can draw a longbow, but it does say "further retail measures".

Mr Moore: A longbow! This Bill has no relationship? Come off it, Kate.

MRS CARNELL: It has lots of relevance to this issue, but the motion says categorically "further retail measures". The fact is that the motion was put together properly. It meant that the Greens were saying, "Yes, this is a step" but they believed that further things still needed to be done to maintain diversity. The Liberal Party agrees with that. Further things do need to be done to maintain retail diversity. We believe that that is an appropriate referral to a committee, but it does not in any way undermine our capacity to pass this legislation or debate this legislation tonight, nor did a previous committee inquiry stop us from debating the mental health legislation, passing it into law and then having a look at how the legislation worked and how it grew. On that occasion we used a sunset clause as well.

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