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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 7 Hansard (27 June) . . Page.. 2078 ..
Proposed new clauses 4A and 4B agreed to.
Clause 5.
MR SPEAKER: Mr Quinlan, I am going to call Ms Tucker first. You will be able to move your amendment, depending upon what happens, but Mr Humphries has an amendment to your amendment.
MS TUCKER (9.20): I move:
Page 2, line 22, subclause (2), omit the subclause, substitute the following subclauses:
"(2) Before making regulations under subsection (1), the Executive must-
(a) consult each member of the Legislative Assembly who is available to be consulted about the proposed regulations; and
(b) after the consultations have been completed, give each member a statement that sets out-
(i) the members consulted about the proposed regulations; and
(ii) the comments and recommendations made by the members because of the consultations; and
(iii) the action the government proposes to take because of the comments and recommendations.
(2A) A statement under paragraph (2) (b) must be given to a member of the Legislative Assembly by delivering it to the office of the member at the Legislative Assembly.".
I have moved this amendment in order to guarantee some transparency for the consultation process specified in this bill. As has been discussed at length, this bill does confer in a limited fashion extraordinary powers on the executive. The subject has been well canvassed in the debate so far, so I will not repeat it; but what the Greens are attempting to do with this amendment is to make for a very open process in terms of how the executive works with the rest of the Assembly.
As we know, consultation can mean any number of things. Sometimes it appears to be a process where you are required to consider the issue in some depth, give of your time and effort in responding to the issue in question and then, for all intents and purposes, have no possible effect on the outcome. That form of consultation, which we are familiar with, is demoralising, a waste of time and not at all desirable, particularly in an instance where we have a critical issue such as we are discussing tonight.
The Greens are of the view that consultation is meaningful only when it is transparent, when those who have been consulted can see the impact of their contribution to the process, gain some sense of other responses to the issue, and are allowed some insight into the thinking of the body which conducts the consultation and can thus understand, if not always agree, with the consequent outcomes.
This amendment specifies a process that fulfils those requirements. The executive must consider and respond to the comments and recommendations made by the members it has consulted and make that information available to all members. It should not be
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