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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 01 Hansard (Thursday, 12 February 2004) . . Page.. 326 ..

I will speak later to the amendments that have been circulated in my name, although I may not need to do so now. I will see what the minister has to say when she responds. However, if the minister does seek to push the bill through, we can talk about those amendments later, if necessary. In terms of this debate and an adjourned debate that may occur in March, I flag here and now that the core element of my amendments relates—nobody will be surprised to hear this—to fireworks.

There are other gaps that were exposed in a briefing session that I attended with the Office of Industrial Relations at ACT WorkCover on 19 January 2004. The gaps relate to issues such as the safe and legal disposal of explosives. If we do get an adjournment today, I would like to see these areas addressed in the next two to three weeks.

This legislation states that people who purchase consumer fireworks in the week leading up to the June long weekend must use those fireworks by the end of the prescribed time on the Monday of the long weekend. Anybody who has unused consumer fireworks in their possession on the Tuesday morning will be breaching the legislation.

However, there is to be no planned amnesty to hand unused consumer fireworks in to the government, and there has been no proper method of disposal communicated by the government to the public. Therefore, members of the public could, unbeknown to them, be breaking the law simply because they have some unused legal consumer fireworks stored away for next year, with no intention of using them in any illegal manner.

In addition, I have to question the level of communication to the public, planned by the government and ACT WorkCover, about the new legislation and related penalties proposed to come into effect on 31 March 2004. At the time of the briefing, this seemed to be unaddressed by the legislation.

From a business point of view, the legislation proposes certain guidelines for storing and handling dangerous substances that, among other things, require structures to be placed around these substances. Canberra businesses will have to bear the financial burden of new structures to comply with the legislation. That is why they need time to address the detail of this bill, among other things.

Have Canberra businesses been told about the additional costs they will undoubtedly have to incur because of this legislation? It is a fundamental question. I think not. The government want to rush this legislation through to prepare for the coming June long weekend, and I can understand their objective. Have Canberra businesses, though, been given sufficient information about the costs they will be liable for after 31 March 2004, so that they can factor that into their budgets? I would have to say that the answer to that is no. I think that, at this point, a sizeable number of ACT businesses have no idea about that.

That leads me to the issue of the consultation process surrounding the legislation. The legislation was tabled in the Assembly in December 2003. It has been pushed by the government for debate in the February sitting period primarily to enable the government to prepare for the June long weekend fireworks. That is an understandable objective but I would maintain that, in so doing, little opportunity is being given for proper consultation.

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