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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 10 Hansard (24 November) . . Page.. 2801 ..

MS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, last week I took on notice a question from Mr Kaine with regard to staff salary allocations for crossbench members. I seek leave to incorporate the answer in Hansard.

Leave granted.

Document incorporated at Appendix 1.

MR OSBORNE: I present Scrutiny Report No. 12 of 1998 of the Standing Committee on Justice and Community Safety performing the duties of a scrutiny of Bills and subordinate legislation committee and I ask for leave to make a brief statement on the report.

Leave granted.

MR OSBORNE: Scrutiny Report No. 12 of 1998 contains the committee's comments on 11 Bills, four pieces of subordinate legislation and eight government responses. In light of the debate this morning, I must take issue with some of the comments of the Attorney-General in relation to our legal adviser. I have a copy of Hansard here. The comments certainly were not too harsh but I do hope that in future the Minister will afford our public servants the same courtesy he would like afforded to his. I remind the Minister that it is not the legal adviser who presents the report; it is actually the committee through me as chair. The legal adviser offers us legal advice in relation to the Bills and we present the report to the Assembly for members to take on board. Members of the committee were unanimous that we should convey our displeasure at your attitude, Minister. I can see you shaking in your boots, but I do think it is an important point.

In relation to domestic violence, I took on board the advice of the legal adviser and we tabled his report. It is then a matter of whether members in this place wish to take that on board in relation to that piece of legislation. It is a unique situation. I do not know whether the advice of the legal adviser is something that would sway me to vote against the legislation but it is certainly very helpful in deliberations.

The report the committee has tabled today contains a number of government responses which we have not been through completely. We will report back at a later date if there are any major problems. In the report tabled today there are a number of minor issues that I would encourage members to look at. Some were in relation to the health Bill we will be debating tomorrow. I certainly will be taking them on board and addressing them in the debate tomorrow. I commend the report to the Assembly.

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