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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 07 Hansard (Thursday, 1 July 2004) . . Page.. 3223 ..

MR WOOD (Minister for Disability, Housing and Community Services, Minister for Urban Services, Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Minister for Arts and Heritage, and Acting Minister for Health) (9.34): Mr Speaker, the government opposes the amendment. We believe the composition of the proposed council appropriately represents those people that need to be represented. This amendment would bring an imbalance that I do not think would be helpful to this specific council.

Amendment (Ms Tucker’s) negatived.

New clause 10A agreed to.

Clauses 11 to 13, by leave, taken together and agreed to.

Clause 14.

MR WOOD (Minister for Disability, Housing and Community Services, Minister for Urban Services, Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Minister for Arts and Heritage, and Acting Minister for Health) (9.35): Mr Speaker, I move amendment No 3 circulated in my name [see schedule 9 at page 3247].

This is an amendment about the obligation to report cultivation of a GM crop. Under the bill there is an obligation to report the cultivation of GM food crops where there are reasonable grounds to conclude that such activities are occurring. A person will be held to have committed this offence where a reasonable person in the circumstances would believe the cultivation of the GM crop was occurring and did not report the activity. This amendment is consistent with conventional legislative drafting and provides an objectively determinable standard.

Mr Speaker, further amendments are technical in nature, as we proceed through this bill.

MS DUNDAS (9.36): Mr Speaker, the Democrats are happy to support this amendment. It would ensure that people who could not be reasonably expected to believe that a GM food plant was being cultivated would not be caught by the offence here. Given that the offence is one of strict liability, this amendment is a better expression of the intention of the provision.

Amendment agreed to.

Clause, as amended, agreed to.

Clause 15 agreed to.

Clause 16.

MR WOOD (Minister for Disability, Housing and Community Services, Minister for Urban Services, Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Minister for Arts and Heritage, and Acting Minister for Health) (9.37): I move this technical amendment, amendment No 4, circulated in my name [see schedule 9 at page 3247].

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