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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 12 Hansard (14 November) . . Page.. 3677 ..

MR PRATT (continuing):

I would have thought that this legislation relating to workers compensation would have been referred to the workers compensation advisory committee-that is, the advisory committee set up this year by the minister, comprising representatives from the Business Council, the CFMEU, the AMA, the Insurance Council of Australia, the Supreme Court and OH&S. Yet at their meeting on 12 July 2002 this legislation was not discussed. At their meeting on 2 August 2002 it was not discussed. At their meeting on 4 October 2002 it was still not discussed. The November meeting has now been postponed to December, and it is not even on the agenda for that meeting either. Consultation-where is it? This is the government of transparency! What is the point of having a workers compensation advisory committee if you are not going to seek their advice about matters relating to workers compensation? The WCAC met twice before the government presented this bill.

This government has bleated and postured about being a government that listens. Yet when it comes to this legislation they have not listened to anyone. They did not want to listen to anyone. The government, as I understand it, has been telling people that while it wants this legislation passed to amend the act to make it easier for business to make payments, they have no intention of posing the surcharge at this time.

So why would you need to amend the system? The only reason you would need to amend the payment mechanism is if you intended to seek payments. That is our concern. In fact, the minister's press release on Tuesday, when he attempted to criticise the opposition, stated that the bill had only one objective: "to ease the financial burden on business in the ACT". The release, titled "Liberals delay financial respite for ACT Business", went on to say:

"In August this year, the Stanhope Labor Government moved to lessen the financial burden of workers compensation costs to business in the ACT.

It also said:

"Our Amendment Bill 2002 amends the relevant Act to allow surcharge payments to be collected on a more flexible basis. Instead of a yearly lump sum payment, payments would be spread over the course of a year.

"This move not only brings legislation up to date to meet current insurance practices, more importantly, it will ease the financial burden on business, enabling them to better manage their workers compensation costs.

At the moment, without the surcharge being applied, there is no financial burden to be eased. How can the government ease the burden on business by making it easier to pay a surcharge that it is not currently charging unless it intends to charge it? The press release went on to say:

"Thanks to the Liberals' Steve Pratt, ACT business will now have to wait."

Minister, I am sure that the ACT business community will thank me for delaying your attempt to get your hands into their pockets. I thank you for the compliment. Mr Speaker, I seek leave to table the minister's press release.

Leave granted.

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