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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 12 Hansard (11 November) . . Page.. 3975 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

Another very interesting thing is the amendment to section 191ZE of the Act. I do not recall ever seeing the word "however" in a piece of drafting. Maybe it is just me. It seemed unusual. The legislation says that locally registered foreign legal practitioners have the same duties to maintain the standard of professional conduct of the legal profession of the Territory as domestic legal practitioners. The word "however" is then used. I do not find anything wrong with that. I just think it is interesting reading. Perhaps it makes the legislation a little more readable. I think anything that makes legislation a little more readable is a very good thing. It certainly does not have a downside. I thought it was interesting, because I could not recall seeing it previously. Perhaps Mr Humphries will recall some other occurrences of that. I suppose we will all go and get our computers out and do a search for "however". Mr Speaker, I will be supporting the legislation.

MR HUMPHRIES (Attorney-General) (6.26), in reply: To take the last point first, I do not think I have seen "however" used in legislation, at least in that context. Perhaps there is a drafting revolution going on that we are not aware of. I think the sense is conveyed perfectly by the use of that word, rather than "notwithstanding subsection (1)", or whatever the usual phrase would be; so I do not mind that.

Mr Moore: It is repeated in the next section as well.

MR HUMPHRIES: Is it? I did not realise that.

MR SPEAKER: If you two gentlemen would like to go outside and talk about this, that is fine.

MR HUMPHRIES: We are enjoying this admiration of the drafter's art, Mr Speaker. It is a very fine art to be admiring.

MR SPEAKER: I suggest the lobbies are useful for that.

MR HUMPHRIES: Yes, but perhaps at another hour of the day we would admire it more. Mr Speaker, I thank members for their support for this Bill. It is quite important to allow the reciprocity arrangements that have now become part of a national agenda to be implemented in the ACT. It certainly does, as Mr Moore observes, build in very strongly the role of the Law Society, but that role is already quite central to the Legal Practitioners Act. They are, if you like, a private regulatory body - a body which is entirely private, which has very significant obligations to regulate the profession. That is anomalous, perhaps. It is not replicated elsewhere. Even the Medical Board does not enjoy the same powers as the Law Society does.

Mr Moore: It may have an impact on the cost of justice.

MR HUMPHRIES: It could have an impact on the cost of justice. I would not hazard an opinion about that. I would say, though, that the Legal Affairs Committee of the previous Assembly, of which I was chair, did examine this question and took the view unanimously that the matter was not a matter that the committee felt able significantly

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