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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 4 Hansard (8 May) . . Page.. 1111 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

ensure that the Territory's interests are safeguarded and the authority's effective management role ensured. All other formal contracts and non-land assets currently held by the Canberra Theatre Centre will be transferred to the new Canberra Cultural Authority. All current assets related to the Canberra Cultural Centre and museums and galleries held by the Department of Business, the Arts, Sport and Tourism will likewise be transferred to the authority.

The Bill before the Assembly gives a new and dynamic approach to management of the cultural facilities in the Territory and provides a structure in which the new Canberra Museum and Gallery can develop and contribute to the social wellbeing of all Territorians. I hope members will see that the authority is a means of being able to better manage Canberra's varied and important cultural assets and its growing cultural collection and will support the legislation as a way of being able to achieve a better integration of the effectiveness of those assets and the better management of those assets between different sectors. I commend the Bill to the Assembly.

Debate (on motion by Mr Wood) adjourned.

MR KAINE (Minister for Urban Services and Minister for Regulatory Reform) (10.53): Mr Speaker, I present the Trans-Tasman Mutual Recognition Bill 1997, together with its explanatory memorandum.

Title read by Clerk.

MR KAINE: I move:

That this Bill be agreed to in principle.

The purpose of this Bill is to give effect to the Trans-Tasman Mutual Recognition Arrangement which was signed by the Prime Minister, all Premiers and the Chief Ministers of the ACT and the Northern Territory last June. That arrangement was subsequently signed by the Prime Minister of New Zealand last July. The objective of the arrangement is to remove regulatory barriers to the movement of goods and occupations between Australia and New Zealand and to thereby facilitate trade between the two countries. The arrangement builds on and is a natural extension of the mutual recognition agreement between the Commonwealth and the States and Territories, which commenced operation in March 1993. This legislation is modelled on the Mutual Recognition (Australian Capital Territory) Act 1992.

This Bill forms part of a larger legislative scheme which involves enactment of legislation by the Commonwealth, the States, the ACT and the Northern Territory, and New Zealand. The larger legislative scheme has two components, that is, an Australian component and a New Zealand component. Our Bill, of course, is concerned with the Australian component of this larger legislative scheme.

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