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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 2 Hansard (29 February) . . Page.. 344 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

commissioners to be appointed on a short-term basis for specific inquiries. It further said that the associate commissioners should have qualifications and experience pertinent to the inquiries being undertaken.

However, the Bill contains a provision that the commissioners can only be qualified in commerce, economics, industry, law or public administration. This is certainly a much narrower range of backgrounds than was originally envisaged. The narrow make-up of the commission will not end up being broadly representative of the range of perspectives and views in the community about competition policy. I have therefore put up an amendment to ensure that one of the three standing commissioners have a different background to the others and will be more representative of the public interest side of competition policy considerations. This commissioner will be required to have knowledge or experience in consumer rights or the provision of services to disadvantaged persons.

Competition policy is not just about economic reform. The competition policy principles included in the Schedule to the Bill include a number of non-economic considerations that address the public benefit side of competition policy. I believe that the commission's inquiries will be more comprehensive and effective if the people undertaking these inquiries have a good understanding of all aspects of the competition policy issue and not just an economic or industry perspective.

I have also put up an amendment that the associate commissioners only need to have knowledge or experience related to the investigation for which they have been appointed. The whole point of having associate commissioners was for the standing commissioners to be able to draw upon a wider range of expertise in the conduct of specific investigations. But the provision in the Bill that the commissioners have a limited range of background severely restricts this.

For example, it might be good to have an expert on environmental protection as a commissioner in an investigation of an industry that has major environmental impacts, where this might be a factor in determining what level of regulation should be imposed on the industry and how the public interest will be served. Similarly, it might be good to have an expert in the care of aged persons in an inquiry into the competitiveness of government services for aged persons. However, the restrictive qualifications of commissioners in the Bill will make it difficult to find appropriate people to be associate commissioners. My amendment will give much more flexibility in the appointment of associate commissioners.

It is only logical that if you are bringing in associate commissioners they have expertise in the particular area. That was the point of the associate commissioners. I hope that the Government will concede this point.

MR HUMPHRIES (Treasurer, Attorney-General and Minister for Justice and Community Safety) (12.02): We will support the amendment of the Labor Party, but we have to ask whether the two remaining subclauses in that clause of Bill are necessary. The idea of appointing as one of the commissioners someone with a particular characteristic which, as Ms Tucker says, represents the broader community better - - -

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