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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 6 Hansard (18 June) . . Page.. 2007 ..
MR QUINLAN
(continuing):everybody has access, we may have on our hands a positive situation as opposed to a negative one.
Equally, Mr Speaker, we do not agree with the import of the Adventure Activities (Liability) Bill. Specific problems in this area relate to insurance products. A specific proposal has been developed which will shortly be presented to the Assembly. What is important is that there has been work done, at a national level, between the states and the Commonwealth on a review of the provisions and application of the Trade Practices Act, which needs to be done sensibly.
I did not want to go down this road but I did say, when this legislation was first brought out, that it was a joke. It remains a joke-and a dog's breakfast. The list of holes in it is tremendous. It is naive in the extreme to think that the ACT can diverge greatly from the provisions put in place at a national level and have the industry even bother looking at us.
As the Chief Minister has said-I will support him to the hilt-the one area we are concerned about is the thresholds and caps which some jurisdictions are instituting. I think they constitute a legal mechanism of disenfranchising people from their entitlements. There is no purpose to a threshold or cap other than to take away from somebody that to which they would otherwise be entitled.
In that regard, we will resist the introduction of thresholds and caps. We may not win-I do not guarantee that we will win that one-but we will nevertheless resist that measure and try to set up a unique process in the ACT. I am talking about public liability and professional liability. I am not talking about the compulsory workers compensation process, Mr Smyth. there are considerable differences.
Mr Smyth
: Ah!MR QUINLAN
: Is that a sign that the penny is dropping?Mr Smyth
: When it suits you, you can; and when it does not suit you, you will not.MR QUINLAN
: You can stand in this place and try to bluff it, mate, but this was a low point. This is rubbish.Debate interrupted in accordance with standing order 74 and the resumption of the debate made an order of the day for a later hour.
Sitting suspended from 12.25 to 2.30 pm.
Questions without notice
Medical practitioners-car ownership
MR SMYTH: My question is to the Chief Minister, Mr Stanhope. I understand my office has given you some notification of it. Chief Minister, in reference to your comments in the Canberra Times this morning, how many doctors are registered in the ACT, and how many Rolls Royces are registered in the ACT?
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