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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 11 Hansard (21 October) . . Page.. 3837 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

wrongfully, that trader would have the right to bring a suit of negligence against the commissioner.

In addition, the use of the word "reasonably"in proposed new section 41A also places a constraint on the use of the power, being confined in its use to the notion of reasonableness when the commissioner or minister is exercising the power to name a trader. A court could then decide whether the commissioner exercised her power unreasonably in the particular circumstances and the trader could be awarded damages.

I also had a concern in relation to the Second-hand Dealers Act and understanding the operation of the suitable person provision. I was given an example of how the provision relating to a suitable person for licensing requirements might operate. One act that could be breached by the issuing of a licence is the Migration Act. One recent example was where an overseas visitor applied for, and was granted, a second-hand dealers licence but his visa did not permit him to work in Australia. I am informed that the Australian Federal Police drew that to the attention of the department.

The adjustment to the Magistrates Court's powers in relation to commercial and retail tenancies is the second round of attempts to clarify the intent of the changes to the commercial and retail tenancies act. The problems were raised at the time by the Commercial and Retail Tenants Association and it has taken several rounds of amendments to get it right. I am still not entirely sure that this amendment today goes far enough.

One of the powers previously available as a remedy in matters of commercial and retail tenancy was the power to reopen a lease to vary it, whether by providing new terms or otherwise, or to set it aside. This amendment today does not spell out in detail the remedies available, but I hope that it will be read in this way; otherwise we will have to come back again.

MR STANHOPE (Chief Minister, Attorney-General, Minister for Environment and Minister for Community Affairs) (11.56), in reply: I thank members for their contribution to the debate and for their support for the Justice and Community Safety Legislation Amendment Bill, which does make a number of minor and technical amendments to a number of laws administered by the Department of Justice and Community Safety.

Bills such as this are part and parcel of law reform and this is a very efficient and effective way of making the sorts of amendments that we are dealing with today. As members have indicated, I did foreshadow that there were a number of additional amendments that we would seek to move today to tidy up a number of other non-controversial issues that have come to the attention of the government, in some instances actually adjusting proposals that had been made when this bill was tabled earlier this year. I do regret any inconvenience that these amendments have caused to members

The first of those amendments is a minor technical amendment to section 8 of the criminal code to overcome an unexpected problem that has arisen concerning the application of the code to offences that existed before the code came into force on

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