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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 7 Hansard (27 June) . . Page.. 2095 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

No. 1. Page 9, line 16, omit "on payment of the determined fee", substitute "without charge".

No. 2. Page 9, line 17, add the following subclause:

"(2) A person may, on payment of the reasonable copying costs, obtain a copy of all or part of the register.".

I will speak to these amendments and my amendments 6 and 7. These amendments replace the provision in the bill for a fee to be charged for inspection of the licence register and the fish dealers register with the right to inspect those registers free of charge. These amendments also provide for access to a copy of all or part of these registers on the payment of reasonable copying costs. Access to the registers ought not to be a revenue-raising matter or even, strictly speaking, a cost recovery exercise. It should be a service provided by the government. No-one, however, is likely to have a problem with paying for the reasonable cost of copying the register.

Amendments agreed to.

Clause 28, as amended, agreed to.

Clauses 29 to 31, by leave, taken together and agreed to.

Clause 32.

MS TUCKER (10.22): I move:

This amendment introduces a term of "not longer than 7 years" for registered fish dealers. I understand that the department conducts regular audits of fish dealing businesses and fairly frequent spot checks to ensure that business is conducted in accordance with all relevant regulations. This is, however, a practice of the department rather than a more formal requirement. It is not appropriate for registration of fish dealers to be indefinite, spot checks and audits notwithstanding. If the auditing process is conducted in depth and the business is conducting affairs in an appropriate manner, then reregistration ought not to be complex or onerous. If those procedures have not been pursued rigorously, then the registration process itself will act as a safeguard. This is another measure of accountability that we are inserting into the legislation. The seven-year timeframe offers businesses some certainty.

Amendment agreed to.

Clause 32, as amended, agreed to.

Clauses 33 to 35, by leave, taken together and agreed to.

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