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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 7 Hansard (2 July) . . Page.. 2103 ..

MR HARGREAVES (continuing):

Essentially, what would keep me happy, if you are going to act retrospectively on this, is that the retrospectivity operate after the date of receipt of the last one of those six. Let them be considered. I guess all we want the Government to do is allow these six to be considered and to have the appeal rights that the scrutiny of Bills committee says are being unduly trespassed upon. I do not see what the problem is about six applicants. Why is it necessary to do that? Why cannot we just grandfather those six and let them compete?

Ms Carnell: Because they will end up being registered and they have no capacity to be registered.

MR HARGREAVES: Well, if they will end up being registered, Mr Speaker, that is not a decision for this Assembly to take. It is something for the board to do. The board has been set up to independently assess these things. There is a criterion in place right now. What we are doing is shifting the goalposts on people who have expectations and who have put in bona fide applications for registration. What we are saying is that you do not have any right to do that. I think the scrutiny of Bills committee was quite right in pointing out that this will unduly trespass on their rights.

We are asking the Government to take this Bill away. If we can come back and we can fix these six people up, the legislation, I am sure, will have a fairly speedy passage, so long as the murkiness in other stuff is looked after. My own position here is that the most significant issue is that yesterday six people thought they were going to satisfy criteria laid down by the board and put in bona fide applications, and tomorrow we change the rules on them.

Ms Carnell: No, we have not. That is not true. The rules were - - -

MR HARGREAVES: Mr Speaker, the Chief Minister says we are not changing the rules on them. What she is doing is terminating their right to apply. I believe that that is an undue trespass on personal rights and liberties. What is wrong with letting them go? Let them be considered by the board. What this Government is doing is changing the issue when we have received stuff. The Chief Minister seems to have missed this simple point. The simple point is that yesterday these people believed there was something that they had about their person which would satisfy a criteria for registration. We are changing that criteria. I do not have any difficulty with those sorts of issues, but I do not think you can go back and say, "Sorry, guys; you used to have your higher school certificate to get into uni. Well, now your higher school certificate is really only the leaving certificate, so you cannot go in". I do not think that sort of thing is on.

Mr Speaker, we are not talking about hundreds of applications. We are not talking about floods of applications. We are only talking about six people. I would have thought a little bit of compassion on the part of the Government might be in order, a little bit of reason and a little bit of fairness. All we are asking is that we delay the Bill while consideration is given to looking after those six people. We are not at this time rejecting the whole lot. All we want is a little time for you to go back and think about those six people.

Ms Carnell: Mr Speaker, may I have the right to speak again?

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