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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 10 Hansard (Wednesday, 25 August 2004) . . Page.. 4223 ..

will be determined by the proposed study and included in regulations, although we can assume that the likely disturbance of asbestos would lead to an activity being classed as high risk.

The third duty in proposed section 47L provides that a seller of a property, except in specified circumstances or if exempted by regulations, must obtain an asbestos report before the property is first advertised, listed or offered for sale. A seller must also make the asbestos report of the property available for inspection during the time an offer to buy may be made. These requirements apply to all properties where there are premises and units under the Unit Titles Act 2001 and locked in a community title scheme.

Buildings constructed after a certain time frame could be exempted from this provision. However, that would be a matter for the task force to advise the government upon. Failure to comply with these duties will be strict liability offences with a maximum penalty of 10 units, which is consistent with the penalties in the Civil Law (Sale of Residential Property) Act 2003.

Section 23 of the criminal code provides that, if a law creates an offence, provided that the offence is one of strict liability, there are no fault elements for any of the physical elements of the offence. Essentially, this means that conduct alone is sufficient to make the defendant culpable. However, under the criminal code all strict liability offences will have a specific defence of mistake of fact. Clause 23.3 of the criminal code makes it clear that other defences may still be available for use in strict liability offences.

There are also amendments to the Building Act 2004 and Building Regulations 2004 covering the handling of certain asbestos and covering requirements for plan approval in respect of disturbing asbestos in building. It has been the government’s intention ultimately to transfer these requirements to new asbestos regulations under the Dangerous Substances Act, with the goal of developing a fully integrated regulatory approach to the control, safe handling and removal of asbestos, supported by appropriate information and education material. This transfer will still occur. Placing these provisions in the Building Act will in no way diminish their application or the protection they provide to the ACT community. In fact, they will enable the government to benefit from the task force’s consideration of these provisions before proceeding with the relocation of the provision.

MR SPEAKER: Thank you, Ms Gallagher. Members, I think that we have missed a couple of matters: the title and the preamble. We will deal with them, in accordance with standing order 180, towards the end of the debate.

Ordered that the question be divided.

Clause 1 of Ms Gallagher’s amendment No 3.

MS DUNDAS (9.32): I will take the opportunity to speak now, as it seems the most opportune time. Hopefully, I, too, will speed this debate along more and not speak on all the different sections of clause 3, as I can see where they are all headed. I note that other members have amendments, and I will be happy to respond to those as the debate moves on. I will be supporting the government’s amendments, as they expand the scope of the

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