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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 7 Hansard (25 June) . . Page.. 2049 ..

Mr Humphries: It had contrary advice from its own officers.

MR BERRY: Mr Humphries interjects that they had contrary advice. It is a matter of the Government deciding which advice it prefers, and it could quite - - -

Mr Humphries: It did decide.

MR BERRY: Indeed it did. It decided that it preferred its own position because it supported the Government's mistake. The Government could have saved all of this debate had it just noted the Scrutiny of Bills Committee position, prepared legislation, brought it to this chamber, had it debated and said, "Oops". It would have been fixed and over with a long time ago. I think the contributions by Mr Humphries and Mrs Carnell to the debate this morning have been humble contributions. It has been a humbling experience for them because they have been suitably sorted out in a debate over an issue which ought not to have been so controversial had they handled it properly in the first place.

Mr Speaker, at this point I would seek leave to move a motion that the amendments which have been tabled by the Attorney-General be referred to the Scrutiny of Bills Committee for further examination and report.

Mrs Carnell: We will have to adjourn debate on the Bill, do you mean?

MR BERRY: No, I do not intend to do that. I will explain.

Leave granted.

MR BERRY: I move:

That the Government's proposed amendments to the Health and Community Care Services (Validation of Fees and Charges) Bill 1997 (circulated in the name of Mr Humphries) be referred to the Standing Committee on Scrutiny of Bills and Subordinate Legislation for consideration and report.

As I said at the outset, these amendments, on the face of it, do not present much of a problem to the Opposition; but, given our experience with this entire matter, it seems to me that the matter would be better looked at by the Scrutiny of Bills Committee before it is brought back into this place in the form of a Bill at some later time. In the meantime, the Health and Community Care Services (Validation of Fees and Charges) Bill could be passed to deal with the matters which are dealt with therein, while the Scrutiny of Bills Committee looks at the amendments. On the face of it, the amendments appear to be more complex than the Bill itself. That on its own would cause one to express some caution about dealing with the matter at such short notice.

I remind the Assembly that I received a copy of the amendments last evening after we rose and I received the explanatory memorandum this morning. Given the circumstances, these amendments ought to be referred to the committee, but there is no reason why the Health and Community Care Services (Validation of Fees and Charges) Bill

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