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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 07 Hansard (Tuesday, 29 June 2004) . . Page.. 2926 ..

Not only do I question whether 43 inspectors are going to be enough, but I am also beginning to question whether effectively we actually have 43 inspectors on the ground. There is some pretty strong feedback around the place that there may not even be 43 inspectors. We will certainly be asking questions. We will want to know exactly where these 43 inspectors are. If the minister can answer that in her response, I will be very pleased, I will walk out of here a happy man, and that will be the end of it. Otherwise, we are going to have to come back to that issue later.

We need a good inspectorate capability. Government management of safety must revolve entirely around a regime of proactive behaviour, educational initiatives and preventative strategies rather than punitive measures. The OH&S legislation that is now in place is focussed on punitive initiatives. We would encourage businesses more if we were helping them put in place their safety measures, rather than going in with a great big stick and giving them a bang over the head. The union right of entry is an unacceptable, insidious piece of legislation. There was no need for it.

MR SPEAKER: Order! I have let this flow long enough. You are a reflecting on a vote of the Assembly.

MR PRATT: Mr Speaker, I will move on from there. The opposition entirely supports the development of OH&S and we want to see that the legislation is capable of providing the right safety measures.

I welcome the government’s recent initiatives on processes put in place to take care of dangerous substances. We have totally supported those initiatives. I welcome, and the opposition totally supports, the financial initiatives in the appropriation that will underpin this.

I now raise an issue concerning potentially highly dangerous substances such as ammonium nitrate. Maybe the government has thought about this, and if they have I would like to know what they are doing about it. The feds are talking about introducing legislation to provide better protections. I would like to know whether the government is now working urgently with the federal authorities and our state counterparts to ensure that we have uniform legislation at the federal, territorial and state level.

Mr Speaker, I wish to take my second 10 minutes.

MR SPEAKER: Please proceed.

MR PRATT: Thank you. I will go into overdrive and grab my second 10 minutes. On the issue of ammonium nitrate and other similar substances that may be misused by evil people for evil means, we clearly know that there is a threat to this community per se and there is a threat to other communities within Australia. There is no getting around that and we cannot hide from it. This community needs to be very responsible and to take appropriate measures.

I imagine the government would be thinking about this matter but it has not said much. I would simply encourage them to identify this issue and work quickly with the feds to ensure that measures are put in place. Certainly, there should be a collaborative regional

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