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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 06 Hansard (Wednesday, 23 June 2004) . . Page.. 2552 ..

a very childish approach to opposition. It is unfortunate, and I do not expect it to get better.

MR STEFANIAK (6.13): I take it, Minister, that means you are going to vote for this quite sensible motion.

Mr Quinlan: No, it’s redundant.

MR STEFANIAK: That causes a bit of a concern, Minister.

Mr Quinlan: But it will get up, Mr Stefaniak. What are we seeing in this place today? We have not seen the pursuit of good government; we have seen the win-lose mentality.

MR STEFANIAK: All it says is that the government refrain from making regulations after 16 August this year in relation to new bills passed by this Assembly during the June, July and August 2004 sittings. That is eminently sensible and, as you yourself have said, a prudent government would not do it anyway, except for any necessary regulations to ensure that you govern.

Mr Smyth has listed a number of important bills where there will be significant regulations. The Chief Minister is introducing a bill tomorrow that has a number of regulations relevant to it. The Law Society has seen the regulations, and the regulations are dependent on this bill being passed, which it probably will be in these sittings because of its context, and those regulations can then take effect. That is fine. That is before 16 August.

Similarly, I assume that the gaming bill, which Mr Smyth referred to, will be passed during these sittings, and any regulations appertaining to it should be in by 16 August. That would simply be good law making and good government. I do not think it is particularly onerous, and I do not think the government needs to be churlish in rejecting it. If it does reject it, the conclusion people will draw is that it is not going to refrain from making regulations after 16 August, which you yourself, Mr Quinlan, have indicated would be very much the wrong thing for a responsible government to do.

Despite the fact that you might not have liked other things that happened today, please refrain from worrying about them. Those are other matters. I ask you to look at the matter at hand now and reconsider it, in the interest of good government.

MS DUNDAS (6.15): Mr Speaker, all Assembly members have a responsibility to ensure that every piece of ACT legislation is fair and effective. That is the principal reason we are elected to sit here. This responsibility extends to the scrutiny of all delegated legislation, which includes regulations. As has been pointed out, if the government makes regulations after 16 August, we might be stuck with an unacceptable law for at least four months. If the federal election is called for the same date as the ACT election, the Assembly may not sit again until February, which means the risk of being stuck with a bad law for six months.

In the interests of good process, regulations should not be introduced too late to allow the Assembly its mandated six sitting days to consider them and move a motion of disallowance. We need an opportunity to debate and pass a disallowance motion before

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