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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 4 Hansard (24 June) . . Page.. 1013 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

Just turning back to the scrutiny of Bills report, there were three issues raised by the committee. The first two have been addressed by the amendments. Having consulted with the drafters, the final comment is not relevant, as proposed section 23C is the list. So no "and" or "or" is required. I commend the amendments to the Assembly.

MS CARNELL (Chief Minister and Treasurer) (1.09 am): Mr Speaker, just very briefly: I think it is really important to get the facts straight here. Mr Kaine, I understand, and I think even potentially Ms Tucker, made the point that the Revenue Commissioner and the Revenue Office had been involved in putting this legislation together. I think it is important to recognise that they, too, had not seen the legislation until in the last 24 hours. They, too, have had to put together their input into this legislation today.

Mr Moore: Including a change of policy.

MS CARNELL: Including a change of policy. The Bill was not developed with the commissioner's advice, contrary to what Mr Kaine said. No advice on the Bill was sought from the commissioner. The commissioner and others certainly had some input into discussions but not into the legislation. The Bill was developed by the committee; and none of us - whether it be the commissioner, the Revenue Office or any of the relevant or interested parties - had commented on it until today. So, it is simply not right to say that there was input into the legislation by anybody in government or anybody on this side of the house.

MS TUCKER (1.11 am): I just want to respond to that. The latest form of the legislation certainly was presented and shown to the commissioner today; but we were working with the commissioner before that, asking for advice. I am not trying to put responsibility here.

Ms Carnell: Are you saying that the commissioner saw copies of the early draft of the legislation?

MS TUCKER: No; I just explained that I did not say that.

Ms Carnell: No; well, that is what you said. You said "the latest draft". They did not see any legislation.

MS TUCKER: I said "this morning" or "yesterday morning". You are not listening.

Mr Kaine: On a point of order, Mr Speaker - - -

MR SPEAKER: Order! Would everybody stop quibbling at this point and try to get things sorted out. It is 10 past one in the morning.

Mr Kaine: Thank you, Mr Speaker.

MS TUCKER: All I wanted to clarify was that we had been trying to work with the Government agents before they saw the whole legislation today. We had some advice. Mrs Carnell is correct; the whole piece of legislation was not presented to them until today. She is correct in saying that, but we had conferred with them before.

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