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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 12 Hansard (13 November) . . Page.. 4204 ..

MR WOOD (continuing):

Ten thousand dollars is a reasonable limit. In fact, I was not correct when I said that my amendments would expand the jurisdiction of the court. They really do no more than restore it to close to the level it was at when the $5,000 limit was set some years ago. The $5,000 limit should have been revised long before this. Perhaps there is a case for some form of indexation to be written into the legislation. It is sensible to take this opportunity to restore the monetary limit. I believe that it is in the interests of justice.

MR HUMPHRIES (Attorney-General) (9.10), in reply: I thank Mr Wood and the Opposition for their support of the Bill. I have some comments to make about the amendments, but I will leave them to the detail stage. On the day when we have dealt with the Environment Protection Bill, this Bill might appear to be small fry. It is actually a very significant amendment to the structure of the small claims jurisdiction of the ACT. There are some very significant modifications to the way in which the Small Claims Court operates. I hope that the impact will be considered by members here and that they will look at the changes made.

Although not to quite the same extent as the Environment Protection Bill, this Bill also has been the subject of considerable consultation and debate over the last few years with the courts themselves, with bodies like the Fair Trading Advisory Committee, with community organisations and so on. It represents a significant overhaul of the operation of the small claims jurisdiction. It is important to have reached this stage, and I thank the Opposition for its support.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

Bill agreed to in principle.

MR WOOD (9.11): Mr Speaker, I ask for leave to move together the three amendments circulated in my name.

Leave granted.

MR WOOD: I move:

Page 6, line 22, clause 6, proposed new subsection 402(1), omit "$5,000", substitute "$10,000".

Page 6, line 25, clause 6, proposed new subsection 402(2), omit "$5,000", substitute "$10,000".

Page 6, line 34, clause 6, proposed new subsection 402(5), omit "$5,000" (wherever occurring), substitute "$10,000".

I have spoken to the amendments. I will not do that again. I will only respond to comments.

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