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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 11 Hansard (21 October) . . Page.. 3514 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

closed. There was an Act about the Broken Hill Trades Hall site, which I visited once. There was an Act about the Goulburn to Crookwell railway line, which, as many would know, is not far away and is long since unused. There was an Act about the Prince Alfred Hospital, which I visited once and which is now a feature of a television program. The North Coast Railway Act gave rise to a train that I probably rode on at one time or another. The Royal Alexandra Hospital for Children Incorporation Amendment Act was about a hospital where my kids were treated. This is real history!

Mr Hargreaves: It is a potted history of Wayne Berry.

MR BERRY: And the whole lot. They were watching out for me all the way.

Mr Hird: This is your life.

MR BERRY: Mr Hird probably drove police vehicles across the Pyrmont Bridge. There was a Pyrmont Bridge Act and a Glebe Island Bridge Act. Neither is there now, so you will not get a chance to do that again. One that I found particular interest in and was sad to see go was the Fire Brigades Act 1909. I rather fear that that had something to do with a job that I once had in New South Wales. I thought that the provisions of that Act were rather harsh and unkind. I am glad that we are repealing it here and I will have some small part in that. The one that I was not sorry to see go - it probably went before I was able to imbibe - was the Early Closing Amendment Act.

Mr Speaker, it is quite interesting to see all of the things which applied here in the past and which will no longer apply. I do not think that there are many among us who will lament that.

MR RUGENDYKE (6.08): Mr Speaker, I wish to make a brief comment on the passing of this history lesson. We have come to the point where I think Mr Quinton has just about run out of things to repeal.

MR HUMPHRIES (Treasurer, Attorney-General and Minister for Justice and Community Safety) (6.09), in reply: Mr Speaker, as I came down this evening to close the debate on this Bill I was thinking that no-one would have read this Bill, all 146 pages of it, and here I have a host of comments from members of the chamber demonstrating that they have carefully trawled through its provisions and noted the obsolete bits of legislation that are being disposed of and approve or disapprove, as the case may be, of what those pieces of legislation are all about.

I thought that the Territorial Waters Jurisdiction Act 1878 was an interesting one for the ACT, Mr Speaker, and one perhaps we should have preserved for our rights, vis-a-vis the Commonwealth, over Lake Burley Griffin. Apart from that, Mr Speaker, I do not think that there is anything we could much argue with concerning the many pieces of legislation being amended there.

On a more contemporary note, a number of much more modern pieces of legislation are being amended in this package to provide for workable, up-to-date legislation in the ACT. I thank members for having indicated their support for the package of reforms.

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