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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 11 Hansard (6 November) . . Page.. 3711 ..

MR WHITECROSS (continuing):

rather than by having people whose primary skills are in regulation, which is the first and foremost consideration of this organisation. Having said that, obviously things like pricing cannot be taken account of without considering environmental and social considerations; so it is appropriate that this commission be encouraged to take account of environmental and social considerations in the conduct of its affairs.

MS TUCKER (12.16): I thank members for their support. I would just respond to Mr Whitecross's comments. At the moment, people are not employed because of their expertise in assessing the other impacts or the so-called external matters, such as the environment and social justice; but this is obviously part of reassessing whether we believe that someone is, in fact, well qualified to take on that particular task. It is, of course, also part of the discussion about developing quality of life indicators so that we can integrate these concerns into our accounting systems, into our auditing and into our regulations. That is a fundamental challenge that we have to address now because we can see what the result is of actually focusing only on the bottom line.

Amendment agreed to.

Clause, as amended, agreed to.

Clauses 8 to 15, by leave, taken together, and agreed to.

Clause 16

MS TUCKER (12.17): I move:

Page 8, line 30, paragraph 2(b), omit the paragraph.

I will actually talk to my amendments Nos 2, 3 and 4 because they are bound together. These three amendments go together, with the amendments to clauses 16 and 20 consequential on proposed new clause 17A. In the Bill as it stands, a requirement for the commission to make a draft report available for public comment is discretionary, depending on the terms of reference given to the commission by the Minister.

We are not happy with that. We do not believe that this is sufficient public consultation. The proposed new clause 17A makes it mandatory for the commission to prepare a draft report of any investigation and to make it available for public comment. Under the amendment to clause 20 the commissioner, in his final report, must also comment on any submissions received from the public, so that the public can be satisfied that the commissioner has at least read and considered these submissions. This is a very important aspect of successful consultation and process as you have the closed loop, including that feedback element, of consultation. I believe it is a best practice consultation measure. Also, I believe the matters that the commission will be looking at would be of interest to the community.

MR KAINE (Minister for Urban Services) (12.19): Mr Speaker, the Government has no problem with this amendment.

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