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

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 03 Hansard (Thursday, 11 March 2004) . . Page.. 1125 ..

This amendment enables appropriate action to be taken under the new provisions. It is important to note that the new disciplinary process and actions that may be taken provide the registrar with greater flexibility to ensure that any necessary disciplinary action appropriately matches the nature of the disciplinary ground and that any decision to impose a disciplinary sanction is appellable to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

Amendment agreed to.

Clause 146, as amended, agreed to.

Proposed new clause 146A.

MR CORBELL (Minister for Health and Minister for Planning (6.04): I move amendment No 18 circulated in my name [see schedule 2 at page 1182], which inserts new clause 146A. This amendment addresses a concern that was raised by some Assembly members and by representatives of the building industry in relation to the application of demerit points. It is important to note that a demerit point cannot be issued on an incomplete activity or task, as it is not possible to determine if the work meets the required standard until it is completed. The concern was that, unlike rectification orders, which can only apply to construction of work that is not more than 10 years old at the time that work is discovered to be defective, there was no time limit on the construction work on which the demerit point would be incurred.

I have listened to the concerns and, following a proposal from Ms Tucker, believe it is appropriate to place a reasonable limit on the issuance of demerit points. This amendment provides that a demerit point cannot be incurred against demerit disciplinary grounds if the incident occurred more than three years before the commencement of this act.

MS TUCKER (6.05): This amendment ensures that demerit points cannot accrue in regard to incidents that occurred more than three years before the commencement of the act. While it is not the fact that demerit points are in themselves a penalty, the accrual of a number of points does ensure that some disciplinary action is undertaken. There has been some general concern that this would constitute retrospective punishment.

This is not the case, as the standards against which any demerit incidents would be judged are the same both before and after commencement, and grants are only established against standards that existed at the time of the incident. Nonetheless, as demerit points themselves can aggregate only over three years, it seems a reasonable step to limit the exposure to the demerit system for three years prior to commencement.

Proposed new clause 146A agreed to.

Clauses 147 to 149, by leave, taken together and agreed to.

Schedule 1—Regulations 1 to 29, by leave, taken together and agreed to.

Regulation 30.

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