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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 9 Hansard (4 September) . . Page.. 2959 ..

MR MOORE (5.27): I, too, have had some concerns about this piece of legislation. My concern is particularly with subclause 5(3), which says that a "regulation made for the purpose of this section" effectively overrides other legislation. I must say that I think this is a poor practice. The matters about which regulations can be made to effect a merger are very specific. They are only after a merger is approved and only specific to a bank and to a style of merger. The regulatory power there is very limited and, like all regulations, is subject to disallowance by the Assembly.

Whilst I feel very uncomfortable with that notion and this way of preparing legislation, and I would like to highlight that for the Minister involved and for other Ministers, I am prepared in this case, because it is so narrowly defined, to allow the Bill to go through. I will be supporting this Bill. I believe it will be used only with reference to the merger that is currently proposed. There are not so many banks left that can do mergers anyway. There is probably a better way to legislate - I think Mr Whitecross made some sensible points, and I am not disagreeing with those - but on balance I have decided to support the Bill. That is not to say that they were not valid points, and I have considered them. I must say that it was a close decision. A review of the legislation as set out in clause 8 is also important. Five years after this has been used we will know that at least it is going to be reviewed. There is a requirement in the law for that to be done. Mr Speaker, although I do have some concerns about the Bill, on balance I am prepared to support it.

MRS CARNELL (Chief Minister and Treasurer) (5.29), in reply: This Bill aims to facilitate the transfer processes resulting from bank mergers. It is important to note that this Bill has nothing to do with the approval of the merger itself. (Quorum formed) That approval is a matter for Commonwealth agencies and Commonwealth legislation. Ms Tucker's comment that somehow this was going to make a difference to bank mergers or how many of them happened is simply not the case. Given the ACCC's views on mergers between the larger banking institutions, there can be no risk involved here for those institutions merging in the ACT under the auspices of this Bill.

Once a merger has been approved there are a number of essential processes involved in transferring accounts, contracts, assets, liabilities and other obligations to the newly formed banking institution. This Bill provides for the use of regulations, once a bank merger has been approved, to be made by the Executive to facilitate the transfer process which affects banking business in the ACT. In the past, each time a banking merger has taken place specific legislation has been enacted to deal with it. This takes up Assembly time and ties up resources of government administration and, of course, drafting, Mr Speaker - something that is very important to all of us in this place. This Bill, through the application of specific regulations, will eliminate the need for the Assembly to pass specific legislation to deal with each bank merger and so expedite the transfer processes resulting from an approved bank merger. Mr Speaker, as we know, this bank merger is between St George and the Advance Bank. I would like to thank Mr Moore for his support on this Bill. Mr Speaker, I would have thought everybody in this place would have done everything in their power to free up legislative drafting time. It is something that is fairly important, I would have thought, to everybody. To be able to do something that helps the clients of the bank specifically, and frees up legislative drafting time and frees up time in this place, I would have thought, would be supported by everyone.

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