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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 1 Hansard (16 February) . . Page.. 116 ..

MR HARGREAVES (continuing):

by omitting "expires on 31 December 1998" and substituting "ceases to have effect at the expiration of 31 December 1999".

We merely say, "Let's go to 2000". I do not need to say any more, Mr Speaker.

Amendment agreed to.

Clause, as amended, agreed to.

Clause 12

MR HARGREAVES (11.52): Mr Speaker, this is the one that blew me away, I have to say. I found it unbelievable. Even more so, I was blown away by recent events. Mr Speaker, this clause transfers responsibility from the authority to the Minister. The Minister is saying, "I can do a better job than the authority". He is saying that it does not need to be at arm's length, that the supplying of milk, which is not only a very nice product but also a health food and all the rest of it, does not need to be one step removed. Under clause 5 he has an authority, but the amendments in clause 12 transfer the responsibility for regulation from the authority to the Minister; yet the same Minister did not have the courage to back up school fares under the zoning system - in fact, bus fares generally. What happened? It was the Minister's responsibility and what did he do? He flicked the ball to the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Commission. He had the authority within his hands and did not have the courage to run with a bad decision, but he can do so with this one.

This is the exact opposite. It is unbelievable that he would take upon himself - either himself or the Chief Minister; it does not really matter - the responsibility that the authority had before, yet he will not do the same thing with other parts of the legislation. I find that absolutely unbelievable and recommend very strongly to the Assembly that it chuck this out.

MR SMYTH (Minister for Urban Services) (11.53): The Government will support the clause, Mr Speaker.

Clause agreed to.

Clauses 13 to 21, by leave, taken together

MR HARGREAVES (11.54): Mr Speaker, even though I seem to be like a drowning man with a hand out of the water, I will nonetheless have another go. For the life of me, I cannot see why you need to have transitional arrangements when there was no reason to change things in the first place. I think enough has been said on the issue, Mr Speaker, so I will just record the Opposition's opposition to these clauses.

Clauses agreed to.

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