Page 3432 - Week 11 - Wednesday, 21 September 2005
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DR FOSKEY (Molonglo) (10.54): I move:
That this bill be agreed to in principle.
I am pleased to introduce the Legislation Amendment Bill 2005, which I will henceforth refer to as the consultation bill. This consultation bill has arisen out of ongoing concerns of the Greens and a number of community organisations about the manner in which legislation is being developed for the ACT Legislative Assembly. There is a perception, wrong or otherwise, that government and other members are not including a thorough consultation process in the development of legislation and are missing out on valuable expert advice and important community opinion. Thus, the outcome of the legislation can be inherently flawed and often fails to provide the optimum solution to the policy problems that it seeks to solve.
The Greens have found in their consultations with community sector organisations that often they have not been consulted, apart from through our office. Many of their suggestions have led to improvements in the legislation. For instance, we believe that the Residential Tenancies Act was improved as a result of suggestions from relevant community organisations. Just this week, we have found that the tree protection legislation has come to the Assembly without many people who have an interest in it knowing that it was due to come up.
Mr Stanhope: That is absolute nonsense.
DR FOSKEY: We have found that many natural scientists are concerned that they did not know the bill was coming before the Assembly and would have liked the opportunity to comment on it.
Mr Mulcahy: Is the bill nonsense or the consultation?
Mr Stanhope: That comment is absolute nonsense. It is false.
DR FOSKEY: I am reporting on my consultations, Mr Stanhope. I am sorry; I am just reporting what I know.
MR SPEAKER: Order, please!
DR FOSKEY: In addition, the scrutiny of bills, which is formally conducted by an Assembly committee, but also to an extent by interested organisations and community members, is often a difficult and complicated process. Hence, an explanatory statement is expected to be tabled with the bill and is included on the legislation register, where it provides some insight to the public for the rationale behind the legislation and, more formally, some guidance on the legal interpretation of the act being passed.
The statement should explain in clear, simple terms the purpose and operation of the legislation. Whilst some explanatory statements are well done and greatly assist the process of understanding and scrutinising a bill, others are not. In response to these ongoing problems, I have presented the consultation bill, which aims to provide a partial solution.
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