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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 06 Hansard (Thursday, 24 June 2004) . . Page.. 2646 ..

Leave granted.

MR WOOD: On behalf of Mr Stanhope, I present the government report on the review of the Protection Orders Act 2001. This is the end product of an extensive assessment of the current protection orders legislation. The main focus of the review was to examine the Protection Orders Act 2001 for consistency with the model domestic violence laws, and to examine whether the protection orders legislation provides adequately for the safety and protection of people from violence, harassment and intimidation. The scope of the domestic violence and personal protection order provisions was also examined. Issues considered were: what should constitute domestic or personal violence for the purpose of the act, who is a relevant person for the purpose of making an application, who may apply and when the court may grant an order.

The review also focused on the identification of amendments that will provide people with a greater level of safety and protection under the act. The report was developed in response to the review. The report concentrates on amendments designed to ensure that the act provides adequately for the safety and protection of people from violence, harassment and intimidation and consists of four parts.

Part 1 provides background information which led to the compilation of the report. This part also gives an overall description of the current position; the second part provides a description of the proposed legislative amendments; the third part provides a review on the consistence of the act with the model domestic violence laws; and the report concludes with an appendix containing copies of the submissions received from agencies in relation to the proposed amendments to the Protection Orders Act. There are a number of recommendations in the report to which I recommend members pay particular attention. I commend the report to the Assembly.

Public Accounts—Standing Committee

Report 8—government response

MR QUINLAN (Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development, Business and Tourism and Minister for Sport, Racing and Gaming): For the information of members I present the government’s response to report 8 on the Standing Committee on Public Accounts, entitled Revenue Raising Issues in the ACT, which was presented to the Assembly on 4 March 2004. I ask leave to make a brief statement.

Leave granted.

MR QUINLAN: I am pleased to table government’s response to report 8 of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts. I would like to thank the committee for their report and am happy to advise that the government supports some of the recommendations and some at least in principle. The government is committed to the intergovernmental agreement on the reform of Commonwealth/state financial relations. This is the forum where a significant proportion of the issues relating to tax reform in the PAC report 8 will be addressed.

I point out that the revenue management branch of the Department of Treasury constantly monitors revenue legislation to ensure currency and equity are maintained.

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