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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 10 Hansard (24 September) . . Page.. 3198 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

fees and charges, how could we then ask them to pay fees and charges by way of some retrospective arrangement as is being provided here? I would be very reluctant to pursue this course if there were people out there who had taken this matter to court.

For example, if thousands had decided not to pay the increase in registration fees as a result of the Ambulance Service fees determination because it was an invalid instrument, I doubt that you would have the Labor Party's support to go after them by way of retrospective legislation. That would be, in my view, a doubtful course for us to take. It is an important piece of legislation because it clears the matter up. There is no evidence that anybody has pursued their right to challenge these fees and charges. If there was a large amount of evidence which suggested that many people had pursued their right to challenge these fees and charges, perhaps the debate would be a different one. I urge members to support the Bill.

Amendments agreed to.

Bill, as a whole, as amended, agreed to.

Bill, as amended, agreed to.

Debate resumed from 25 June 1997, on motion by Ms Tucker:

That this Bill be agreed to in principle.

MR HUMPHRIES (Attorney-General) (11.33): Mr Speaker, the Bill which Ms Tucker has introduced into this place effects a number of amendments to the domestic violence legislation in the Territory and, in particular, seeks to implement selected recommendations of the Community Law Reform Committee's Report No. 11 on domestic violence. That report, which was tabled in the Assembly, contains some 62 recommendations. The recommendations deal with a range of issues of varying complexity, including the circumstances of the issuing of domestic violence orders, the nature and effect of those orders, the way in which support services operate to provide protection to people in the position of requiring such orders, and a range of other issues. The issues in some cases are quite complex and have been the subject of considerable Government work over the intervening period since they were originally tabled.

I just want to run through some of the issues canvassed in the report. They include the procedure for obtaining a protection order; the duration of protection orders; the grounds for orders being made; the relationship between orders made under the Domestic Violence Act and orders made by the Family Court in relation to custody and access; the scope of people who should be able to be protected under an order; assistance to applicants who are under a disability; procedures for the making of consent orders;

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