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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 11 Hansard (24 September) . . Page.. 3286 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

squarely in this house. Whilst this is in many ways a minor piece of legislation, there is a very minor shift in the way we operate. Effectively, there is a delegation of power to parliamentary counsel. I think it is an appropriate delegation of power but one that certainly does require monitoring of how it is used. I hope that the Scrutiny of Bills Committee in a year or so will take the time and effort to look at this particular piece of legislation and say, "How has it operated over the previous year? What changes have been implemented and what has been their impact?". The reason I am happy to support this legislation is that I believe it will be positive. Nevertheless, since it is the responsibility of this house, it is an important issue that does need to be dealt with carefully.

MR HUMPHRIES (Attorney-General) (11.39), in reply: Mr Speaker, I thank members for their support for this piece of legislation. I note the concern about the title of it. Perhaps some other title might have been more appropriate. Mrs Carnell likes the title, so someone likes the title at least.

Ms Follett: Up the republic!

MR HUMPHRIES: That was not the intention, Mr Speaker. Members can fantasise about these names if they want to, but this is as close as I think we are going to get to a republic, so I am quite happy to sponsor this very small step. This is a significant piece of legislation because it frees the time of this Assembly from things which I think are of less importance to allow us to concentrate on things that are of more importance. In fact, I dare say that of all the Statute Law Revision Bills that have been presented in this house there would probably not be one which has been read from cover to cover by any member of this place. Perhaps someone will jump to their feet and indignantly say, "No, I read No. 6 of 1992" or something.

Mr Moore: I may have missed some, but I have read them from cover to cover, you bet.

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Moore assures me that he has read them from cover to cover. He obviously has too little to do on the crossbenches. For the most part, those Bills are mechanical devices. They are designed to fix up purely typographical, stylistic, formatting or related matters in legislation and they ought not to occupy the time or incur the other costs associated with the operation of this house in dealing with them. I hope that this legislation will free us of those sorts of problems and allow us to concentrate on things which are more important.

Ms Follett commented that this is the loss of a filler in the program. This Government eschews fillers, Ms Follett. We do not mind getting rid of them at all. Let me also make a reference to Mr Moore's comment that this was an initiative of the Scrutiny of Bills Committee. The legislation in Queensland on which this is based certainly came to the attention of the Scrutiny of Bills Committee, but at the time there was some resistance in the Assembly, and the Scrutiny of Bills Committee particularly, to picking up this idea in the Assembly. Indeed, Mr Connolly was rather opposed to the concept of a Bill like this. At least, that is what he said at the time. I am pleased that there is now support for this concept from the floor of the chamber.

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