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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 2 Hansard (25 February) . . Page.. 409 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

Occupational Health and Safety Act - Instruments of appointment to the Occupational Health and Safety Council -

No. 26 of 1997 (S21, dated 24 January 1997).

No. 27 of 1997 (S21, dated 24 January 1997).

Taxation (Administration) Act - Stamp Duties (Interests in Land) - Determination No. 38 of 1997 (S40, dated 12 February 1997).

MR WOOD: Mr Speaker, I present Report No. 1 of 1997 of the Standing Committee on Scrutiny of Bills and Subordinate Legislation. I seek leave to make a brief statement on the report.

Leave granted.

MR WOOD: This is also report No. 1 with me as chair. I thank my colleagues Messrs Hird and Osborne for the great enthusiasm with which they welcomed my appointment.

Mr Hird: Deserving, Mr Chairman.

MR WOOD: Absolutely. I was waiting for that.

Mr Speaker, among other matters, the committee comments on the Medical Treatment (Amendment) Bill 1997 and draws attention to an apparent inconsistency in clauses relating to requests concerning particular processes outlined in the Bill. It appears that, although the medical practitioner in a written request is to be required to be one of the witnesses to a written request, there is no such requirement to be a witness in a request that is not in writing. It may be that it should be specified that the provisions should cover an unwritten request and an unwritten direction.

The committee also reports on a matter of some significance, especially today, as it may be that the $15 road rescue fee has not been validly collected for some period of time. It appears that there was no commencement announcement under the relevant Act - the Motor Traffic (Amendment) Act (No. 2) - before 1 January 1997. There is a reference to the Motor Traffic (Amendment) Act (No. 3), but that is not relevant to the road rescue fee. In the absence of any commencement, road rescue fees collected under determination No. 290 of 1996 prior to the commencement of the statutory provisions would be illegal. The period of this collection would appear to be some seven weeks, from 1 January to 21 February. The Government obviously will need to respond urgently to that matter in this report.

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