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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 12 Hansard (7 December) . . Page.. 3804 ..

MR KAINE (continuing):

Mr Speaker, I will be supporting the bill and the amendments, because I recognise that it is at least an attempt to address the problem that has been of concern to many of us.

MR MOORE (Minister for Health, Housing and Community Care) (10.54): As with many of the things we do in this house, particularly the things that are ground breaking, it is difficult to know whether we have got this exactly right. Mr Kaine correctly says that this legislation ought to be reviewed in the not too distant future when we see how it has been working. There is no doubt in my mind that amendments will be made to Mr Osborne's legislation later.

I would like to take a little bit of ownership, because I think of the bill as a comfortable marriage between Mr Osborne's bill and mine. It became clear in our round table meeting that we were doing things that were parallel to each other, and there was certainly some overlap. Therefore, being able to put the amendments together did not turn out to be that difficult. Part of the reason was that I already had a bill on the table.

We have had indications from members that this legislation will go through. When that has happened, as is indicated on the daily program, I will seek to remove from the notice paper the legislation that I had proposed originally, which has now been put into Mr Osborne's legislation in an amended form, along with a number of other things that have happened.

This is a very important day for the ACT. Confidentiality in contracts is an issue I raised a number of times before the Carnell government came into power and have raised since. This is a very important step to open government. The pleasing part is that it is recognised by every member of the Assembly that this is something we need to do to make more transparent the processes that have continued to cause problems.

Members who have been ministers will know that the irony is that the things that public servants seem to think it is so important to keep confidential, apart from privacy issues, seem to cause us so little difficulty. It is rarely a minister who says, "Keep this particular piece confidential for a political purpose." It has normally been an administrative attitude. I think this will help break through that, no matter who is in government.

It is with pleasure that I support this legislation and that the government supports this legislation.

MR OSBORNE (10.57), in reply: I thank all members for their support. I must admit that I am a little rattled after listening to Mr Kaine saying he is going to keep an eye on this legislation for the next year or so. He might be around after the next election, so it makes me nervous.

This is an important day for the ACT. It is not often that we get opportunities like this. Following the Bruce Stadium situation, I have tried to come away with some positives. I doubt very much whether there would have been the political will, especially from the major parties, to take a step like this had there not been a situation with Bruce Stadium.

I apologise to those members who feel they were not included in the loop on this legislation. I had a round table with the government, Mr Moore, Ms Tucker's officer and Mr Stanhope's representative. We went through all the three bills point by point. At the

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