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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 04 Hansard (Thursday, 1 April 2004) . . Page.. 1516 ..

of the Commonwealth regarding the special exemptions that apply to the Commonwealth’s Trans-Tasman Mutual Recognition Arrangement 1997. This is an arrangement between the Commonwealth, state and territory governments of Australia and the government of New Zealand that allows goods to be traded freely and enhances the freedom of individuals to work in both countries.

When the Trans-Tasman Mutual Recognition Arrangement was signed in 1997, exemptions were made for six industry areas in which it was thought that mutual recognition had the potential to generate net benefits, but where outstanding issues awaited resolution before mutual recognition could apply. The special exemption areas were: hazardous goods, therapeutic goods, road vehicles, gas appliances, electromagnetic compatibility and radio communications equipment, and consumer product safety standards and bans. While some progress has been made in resolving the issues, many remain unresolved.

As required by the text of the Trans-Tasman Mutual Recognition Arrangement, the Productivity Commission undertook a joint study of the arrangement and the Australian Mutual Recognition Agreement in 2003. As required by the Council of Australian Governments, officers have prepared a report on the Productivity Commission’s study recommending acceptance of 25 of the study’s findings and suggesting that further work be undertaken on the remaining 49 findings.

In order that the report should be completed and considered, the Prime Minister wrote to me on 10 March asking for my agreement to rolling over current special exemptions until April 2005. The additional time will also allow the cooperation groups to address the remaining differences between Australian and New Zealand laws and regulations. States and territories endorsed the changes to the Trans-Tasman Mutual Recognition Arrangement special exemptions by gazetting the regulations in their respective gazettes and, in the ACT, by notifying the instrument on the ACT legislation register.

Mr Speaker, on behalf of the ACT, the Acting Chief Minister, Mr Quinlan, endorsed the notifiable instrument on 24 March 2004.

Insurance Authority Act

Paper and statement by minister

MR QUINLAN (Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development, Business and Tourism, and Minister for Sport, Racing and Gaming): Mr Speaker, for the information of members, I present the following paper:

Insurance Authority Act, pursuant to section 12 (1)—Insurance Authority (Insurance Settlement Funds) Direction 2004 (No 1), dated 10 March 2004.

I ask for leave to make a brief statement.

Leave granted.

MR QUINLAN: Mr Speaker, pursuant to section 12 of the Insurance Authority Act 2000, I present this direction to the ACT Insurance Authority. The ACT Insurance Authority has received approximately $52.5 million dollars in settlement payments from

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