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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 10 Hansard (23 September) . . Page.. 3081 ..

MRS CARNELL (Chief Minister and Minister for Health and Community Care) (10.36): I ask for leave to present the Public Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 1997.

Leave granted.

MRS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, I present the Public Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 1997, together with its explanatory memorandum.

Title read by Clerk.

MRS CARNELL: I move:

That this Bill be agreed to in principle.

Mr Speaker, I have pleasure today in presenting the Public Health (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 1997. This Bill contains the necessary consequential amendments for the Public Health Bill 1997 which has already been tabled in this place. The Bill provides for the transfer of various provisions of the Skin Penetration Procedures Act 1994, the Sexually Transmitted Diseases Act 1956, the Tuberculosis Act 1950 and the Building Act 1972 to the new Public Health Act. It also repeals a number of Acts, such as the remainder of the Skin Penetration Procedures Act 1994, the Sexually Transmitted Diseases Act 1956 and the Tuberculosis Act 1950 as well as sections of the Building Act 1972 relating to legionella control. The Bill also repeals the Public Health (Infectious and Notifiable Diseases) Regulations and replaces them with the Public Health (Immunisation and School Diseases Control) Regulations.

One of the most important functions of this Bill is that it creates transitional arrangements so that any licences, notices and the like in operation at the commencement date of the new Public Health Act remain in force as if they had been issued under the new Act. This Bill also transfers the regulations from the old Public Health Act to the new Act. All these regulations will be reviewed against the national competition policy and regulatory reform principles to ensure that they are modern and relevant. In many instances, the regulations will be replaced with flexible codes of practice developed in cooperation with industry and the community. These reviews highlight the Government's strong commitment to regulatory reform. This Bill creates an offence under the Crimes Act 1990 for placing a person in danger of contracting a serious disease. It also inserts a reference to that offence in the Domestic Violence Act 1986. Because blood-borne diseases are so potent, the Government is very concerned about the possibility that these diseases could be used to deliberately harm another person, particularly in the situation where a person intends to infect another person. The Crimes Act, as it currently stands, does not adequately address this problem. Mr Speaker, a serious disease is defined in the Bill as "a disease of such a nature as (a) to endanger life, or be likely to endanger life; or (b) to cause permanent injury to health, or to be likely to cause permanent injury to health". I commend this Bill to the Assembly.

Debate (on motion by Mr Berry) adjourned.

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