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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 10 Hansard (23 September) . . Page.. 3174 ..

MR HUMPHRIES: I move:

Page 2, line 20, clause 5, subclause (1), omit "A", substitute "Subject to subsection (6), a".

Page 3, line 7, clause 5, subclause (6), omit the subclause, substitute the following subclause:

"(6) A person -

(a) who has made an application under subsection (1) that has been refused; or

(b) whose registration has been cancelled under section 8;

is not eligible to make another application under subsection (1) to any approved agency within 6 months of the refusal or cancellation, as the case requires.".

Page 5, line 11, clause 13, proposed subclause (2), add the following subclause:

"(2) The regulations may prescribe -

(a) requirements to be complied with by an approved agency; and

(b) penalties not exceeding 10 penalty units for failure to comply with a requirement.".

Mr Speaker, I table the supplementary explanatory memorandum for these amendments. I apologise that they have come quite late to the house, but one of the parties who were consulted about the process suggested these amendments and the letter arrived only yesterday; so the amendments were prepared at some speed so that I could bring them forward for the debate today. Very simply, the amendments do not affect the general thrust of the Bill. They provide a greater flexibility and, therefore, fairness in the process of registering a mediator and greater access by the public to the names of registered mediators.

I indicated when I introduced the Bill that the Bill reflects comments I had received from various agencies, and at that time I expressed my appreciation for the work that they had done in providing their comments. These amendments reflect further comments that I have received. The first amendment alters subclause 5(6) in order to provide that only a person who has been refused registration as a mediator or whose registration has been cancelled has to wait the six months before making a further application for registration.

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