Page 3895 - Week 10 - Thursday, 28 August 2008
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MS MacDONALD (Brindabella) (11.46): I, too, would like to commend this report. As Dr Foskey has said, this was a report which was done fairly quickly. While it is not a long report, there are quite a large number of recommendations. In fact, there are 16 recommendations in what is a 35-page report, which would seem rather a lot. Certainly when we were going through it, I thought that appeared to be rather a lot of recommendations for such a short report. As we know, liquor licensing is a very heavily regulated area; so it does, in fact, make sense to have that many recommendations included.
The committee has noted at 1.4 that in March of this year the Attorney-General released a discussion paper on a review of the Liquor Act 1975. We have stated that we hope that the recommendations in this report will be considered as part of the government’s consideration of that review. I think there are a number of recommendations in here and a number of comments in here that are worthy of consideration as part of that review.
Certainly it is an area which will continue to need heavy regulation and scrutiny, and it is always good to look at what the states and the Northern Territory are doing with regard to this area as well. As well as having looked at what goes on here in the ACT and what players such as the Australian Hotels Association would like to see being done, we have also talked about things that are going on within other areas.
I would draw members’ attention to the issue of liquor accords which go on in other states and which are reputed to be reasonably successful in some of the areas in which they operate. So it is an area in which the community can be involved with the regulation of liquor licensing if it is having an impact on their area and certainly is something that bears due consideration for the future. I might leave it at that and just commend the report.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Public Accounts—Standing Committee
Statement by chair
DR FOSKEY (Molonglo): This is the last statement that I will make as chair of the public accounts committee. Pursuant to standing order 246A, I wish to make a statement on behalf of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts relating to Auditor-General’s reports not inquired into. I have just tabled the last report of the public accounts committee of this Assembly. While the committee has tabled 18 reports totalling 829 pages and containing 173 recommendations, there are inevitably matters that the committee is unable to inquire into.
The committee has considered all Auditor-General’s reports up to and including report No 6 of 2007. The committee has not been able to formally consider the last two reports issued by the Auditor-General last year, nor any of this year’s reports. We have, however, received briefings from the Auditor-General on her reports into the aged care assessment program and the home and community care program, the Chris21 project and management of Calvary hospital arrangements. It will be up to
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