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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 6 Hansard (18 June) . . Page.. 2046 ..

MR SMYTH

have to address their needs early, and that is what this bill is about. It is what the workers compensation legislation was about.

Mr Speaker, this is a golden opportunity to change the way we think about injury. It will complete the trilogy of compulsory third party and workers compensation, which are now no-fault schemes. No fault does not mean that people will not be punished for negligence. I am quite sure that they will be caught and punished. But what it does not mean is that we can sit down and wait. Mr Speaker, we have proven that with CTP and workers compensation.

I think I have made quite clear the government's inconsistency in its response to the victims of crime legislation, which the Chief Minister so proudly tabled here yesterday, where it says, "Go the rehabilitative process, don't look to financial lump sums, intervene early, get a better result."

Mr Speaker, I think it is disappointing that the government in particular does not have the courage to think outside the circle. They certainly do not have the wit but one would have hoped they might have had the courage to do so.

It is a shame that we have not seen from this government a single set of reforms on any issue that shows that they are not a moribund group of thinkers who are trapped within their orthodoxy. The true conservatives have emerged. Mr Speaker, you are probably happy not to be sitting with the rest of the conservatives on the government benches. Because the true conservatives are in charge, nothing is going to change.

Mr Speaker, the new approach to the insurance crisis has to be listened to and has to be adhered to. Unless this happens those who are injured will not get what they deserve; there will not be the reforms that will lead to the end of human suffering. Unless we set up a program on our own that steps outside the orthodoxy we will follow slowly in the wake of the others. This is a government that follows slowly in the wake of many things.

Mr Speaker, I think the case for change is convincing. I think the proof of the pudding is already in the workers compensation legislation that I am told has already led to a reduction in litigation and an increase in early intervention and rehabilitation. And isn't that what we should be after; isn't that what we as a jurisdiction desire; isn't that what we owe those people who are injured?

Mr Speaker, I commend the bills to the Assembly. I would hope that there is a road to Damascus between now and the next two minutes and 13 seconds. I suspect there will not be. But I won't give up because I will come back again in the new year with these bills. I will take Mr Quinlan's advice: I will take his list of recommendations back to the Parliamentary Counsel and say, "Okay, here are some identified flaws. Make the bill better."So I thank Mr Quinlan for giving me that opportunity.

I thank Mr Quinlan for identifying what he thinks are flaws and I will get some advice. But fundamentally the bill is sound. Fundamentally the system it proposes is sound. We know it works because it works in the workers compensation system. We know it will lead to a reduction in litigation, we know that it will lead to an increase in rehabilitation, and that, Mr Speaker, leads to an increase in outcomes-better outcomes, greater

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