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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 9 Hansard (3 September) . . Page.. 2845 ..

Mr Corbell: They do not farm just battery eggs in New South Wales. They also farm barn eggs and other forms of eggs.

MR HUMPHRIES: That is true; but the vast majority of eggs produced in New South Wales, as elsewhere in Australia, as in the ACT - something in the order of 95 per cent - are battery eggs, not free-range eggs and not barn eggs. There is no reason to expect that other jurisdictions are going to close off their markets. Their markets are the ones that are affected, not ours, in a sense. Their capacity to export to the ACT is restricted by placing that provision into Schedule 2 of the Mutual Recognition Act. So, they lose out; but we do not, because, if we already have this ban on battery eggs, then we have a market all around us for eggs from the ACT, but no restrictions except the ones we impose on ourselves.

So, it seems to me most unlikely that any State would view this as a particularly satisfactory arrangement. However, if that is not the correct interpretation, then Mr Corbell, no doubt, will have a lot to do with it, because Mr Corbell is of the party that presently governs New South Wales, and I am sure that he will be very persuasive in getting the New South Wales Labor Government to argue for a change in the law in this respect. I look forward to the positive press release on this matter in the coming weeks.

Mr Corbell: I would be very happy to take that job over, Gary; no problem.

MR HUMPHRIES: We look forward to seeing the press release on that subject, Mr Corbell.

Mr Corbell: I have no problem with taking your job over, Gary.

MR SPEAKER: You have to be in the house to do that, Mr Corbell, and if you keep interjecting you will not be.

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, that is the basic problem that the Bill faces. But what members, nonetheless, have failed to take into account is the more immediate effect on those who are in the business of supplying eggs. I emphasise again that the immediate problem here is the expectation that the parameters of production are changing - the expectation that the egg industry in the ACT, which is largely one industry, one enterprise, has the capacity to change its parameters or will agree to continue to operate in this Territory with those changing parameters going on around it.

I say again to members that they should proceed with the very greatest caution in this area. Ms Horodny, in her remarks before, said, "We have moved to ban other dangerous products. We have moved to make those dangerous products unavailable. We have moved to outlaw slavery - - -

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