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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 9 Hansard (17 November) . . Page.. 2547 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

in the past for this country. Nonetheless, it is important to be able to deal with those issues flexibly without having to go back and amend numerous pieces of legislation to deal with a decline in the value of money because the penalties referred to in the legislation are dollar figures rather than the more flexible penalty units which are now in most ACT legislation.

This is a step which in a sense obviates the need for future Assemblies to do further work of a mechanical nature. I think we would all agree that parliaments have more important things to do than to mechanically go through and overhaul pieces of legislation on a purely technical basis like that. It is best if the minds and energies of members are concentrated on more important issues of policy and leadership within our community generally.

It is a small but important step today to be able to close off this exercise in penalty units and to put on the record the Government's thanks for the hard work that has gone into this process by officers of what is now the Department of Justice and Community Safety over many years to bring this to fruition. It certainly was a major exercise, and I am very pleased that we now have a thorough revision and up-to-date penalties provided for in, as far as I am aware, all ACT legislation.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

Bill agreed to in principle.

Leave granted to dispense with the detail stage.

Bill agreed to.

Debate resumed from 29 October 1998, on motion by Mr Humphries:

That this Bill be agreed to in principle.

MR HARGREAVES (10.45): I rise to advise the Government of the Opposition's support for this Bill. The Bill repeals the Fair Trading (Petroleum Retail Marketing) Act 1995. The 1995 Act introduced controls over the four major oil companies. In 1995, when an oil company decided to close a petrol station, the franchise could not continue as a franchise of another company through the sale of the site by one company to another. This was because the Act set limits on the four major oil companies for multisite franchises. Since that time we have had other operators - Burmah, Woolworths Plus and Gull - enter the market. This has shown that the legislation, while well intended, did not actually work, so we are quite pleased to see the repeal come forward.

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