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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 9 Hansard (21 August) . . Page.. 2663 ..
MS DUNDAS (continuing):
I was impressed with the way the committee members came together-Mr Hargreaves, Mrs Cross and I. We approached the issue with clear heads and tried not to get completely bogged down in devastating individual stories. We were there to try to work out ways in which to address the problems presently facing our community.
My thanks go to the other committee members-Mr Hargreaves and Mrs Cross-and to our secretariat support, who did a wonderful job in bringing everything together.
Debate (on motion by Mr Stefaniak ) adjourned to the next sitting.
Plant Diseases Bill 2002
Debate resumed from 27 June 2002, on motion by Mr Wood:That this bill be agreed to in principle.
Debate (on motion by Mr Stefaniak ) adjourned to the next sitting.
Justice and Community Safety Legislation Amendment Bill 2002
Debate resumed from 20 August, on motion by Mr Wood, on behalf of Mr Stanhope:That this bill be agreed to in principle.
MR STEFANIAK (12.08): The opposition will be supporting this bill from the government, and all of the amendments being put up by the government, except one relating to the Remand Centres Act. I have already notified the Chief Minister about that. I have a number of comments to make in relation to the bill.
This is a consolidation bill, to an extent. There are a number of very minor, technical amendments in it, especially in relation to GST-type matters. There are also some amendments probably dating back even to the time when Mr Humphries was Attorney-General-certainly to the time I was there. I recall, on one occasion, telling the department to hurry up in relation to some of these amendments.
Many of the suggestions which have resulted in these amendments have been made by the agencies. For example, the amendments in the Agents Act came out of an Auditor-General's report, which recommended amending the conflict of interest provisions. The amendments to the Children and Young Persons Act relate to concerns held by the Chief Magistrate, the Children's Court Magistrate and the other magistrates. The Children's Services Council and the Law Society were also involved.
Treasury had some input in relation to the Consumer Credit Act, as did the Crown Solicitor's office in relation to the Crown Proceedings Act. The Legal Practitioners Act-I am pleased to see-brings us largely into line with New South Wales. That was done in conjunction with the Law Society, which assisted with the drafting. I have had some discussions with the Law Society, and I am happy with that bill. The matters there go back up to two years. It is good to see that those matters are now being attended to.
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