Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 03 Hansard (Thursday, 11 March 2004) . . Page.. 1123 ..

Clauses 102 to 109, by leave, taken together and agreed to.

Clause 110.

MS TUCKER (5.57): I move amendment No 1 circulated in my name. [See schedule 4 at page 1184]. This amendment requires the registrar to provide an annual report under the Annual Report (Government Agencies) Act 2004. Under the act, when passed, this report must conform with annual reports directions and be tabled in the Legislative Assembly. This amendment also requires the annual report to incorporate the reporting requirements found in the regulations in the schedule attached to this bill.

There is a concern that the registrar, who has wide-ranging administrative power, will be perhaps too much a part of the ACT Planning and Land Authority. I recognise that there is a danger that the functions could be too subsumed, and I believe it is important for all of us to have a clear view of how this regime is working. Nonetheless, I am of the view that a small, hybrid jurisdiction, such as the ACT—covering, as I have said, both the state and local government responsibilities—could benefit substantially from dovetailing the functions of planning and building control in the ACT.

Those benefits would be both economic and functional and would extend to the construction industry as well as government and consumers. This annual report requirement will ensure that the registrar accounts directly to the Assembly for his or her activities—through the report and, presumably, the estimates committee process—and gives us some more detailed indication of what is going on in this new scheme, how fair and effective it is proving and the nature of any recurring problems in the industry itself.

MR CORBELL (Minister for Health and Minister for Planning (5.59): The government will be supporting Ms Tucker’s amendment. The existing clause required the registrar to report to the minister disciplinary action taken during each financial year. The registrar is accountable to the minister in administering this act and, clearly, disciplinary action is an important indicator of the compliance of licensees with the required standards.

Ms Tucker has identified through these amendments that complaints received by the registrar are also an important indicator of the effectiveness of the regulatory system. Sometimes complaints received do not necessarily relate to work against which discipline or rectification action can or should be taken. The nature of the complaints may, however, give guidance to the registrar and the industry on areas of concern that may require information or education strategies, not just for licensees but also for consumers. This is a useful extension of the reporting to the minister, and the government will support it.

MS DUNDAS (5.59): I am happy to support Ms Tucker’s amendment. It presents a much better solution to the argument about independence than Mrs Dunne’s proposal does. It gives the statutory responsibility to the building registrar to report independently to ACTPLA so that we see what is happening and what the building registrar is doing, quite separate from the ACTPLA annual report. It is a simple yet important amendment. I welcome, and am happy to support, the amendment.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .