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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 5 Hansard (9 May) . . Page.. 1239 ..

MR BERRY: I intend to persist with that line, Mr Speaker, so you can sit me down if you wish. I just want consistency, that is all.

MR SPEAKER: Mr Berry, you have referred to a matter that took place in the last Assembly. I do not have the matter in front of me. Secondly, as the debate on this matter has been adjourned, you will have the opportunity to debate in great detail what you perceive as the failings of the government.

MR BERRY: No. I would like to have the same generosity extended to me as was extended to Mr Humphries.

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY LEGISLATION

Statement by Member

Mr Kaine: Mr Speaker, can I seek to resolve this issue by moving that Mr Berry be given leave to make a statement on this matter?

MR SPEAKER: That may clear the matter up very well, thank you. Is leave granted for Mr Berry to make a statement on the matter?

Leave granted.

MR BERRY: Mr Kaine, thank you. I would rather have tested the Speaker's generosity.

MR SPEAKER: Be careful, Mr Berry!

MR BERRY: Now that you have taken that opportunity away from me, the matter remains untested. Mr Speaker, I think this is merely a case of the government playing catch-up politics. It has been severely embarrassed about this matter from the beginning. It goes back to the days when a senior minister first interfered with occupational health and safety inspectors in the performance of their duties. The matter of the minister's interference did not come before the coroner, but the matter of a senior public servant's attempted interference in the performance of the duties of occupational health and safety officers did come to the notice of the coroner and the coroner quite appropriately raised the issue. Where those instructions came from or where the direction of the government came from before that reported attempt occurred remains something of a mystery.

I have not had much time to sit down and examine this bill, but if it does what it says it does then I am very happy that the government has decided at last to get on board a program to provide independence to the Occupational Health and Safety Commission in the model which was supported by this Assembly. I hope that, on close examination of this bill, we do not discover that this is just an attempt to build up the government's credibility in relation to this issue, which has been so poor up to this point.

Mr Speaker, I have not had a chance to talk to other members to determine whether they might wish to deal with this matter on Thursday or Wednesday or some time this week. As the process of recruiting a new Occupational Health and Safety Commissioner is well and truly under way, it would be better to deal with this earlier rather than later.

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