Page 1054 - Week 03 - Thursday, 26 February 2009
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This amendment will insert a new standing order which will require the government to refer significant legislation for consideration by the scrutiny of bills committee. This is standard practice in other democratic jurisdictions and is nothing more than good parliamentary practice. Under majority government, the community was not well served by Labor being able to rush various bills through the Assembly—Mrs Dunne has just highlighted a useful example of that—in situations with minimal publicity, minimal scrutiny and perhaps minimal consultation. I trust that the message has been relayed by various ministers to their departments that legislative proposals now need to be developed well before the time at which they need to become operational and that the processes of consultation and scrutiny are to be embraced and actively engaged in in good faith.
The Greens are mindful of the need to ensure that governance process requirements do not adversely impact on the efficient operations of government. To this end, amendments which are genuinely of a minor or technical nature will not be required to be scrutinised by the committee, and I think that is very sensible. Similarly, this amendment also recognises that there will be occasions on which the government will have to urgently move substantial amendments to legislation and that it will be impractical on every occasion to require such amendments to be referred to the scrutiny of bills committee. The Greens, and I am sure the Liberal opposition as well, will be watching which bills are claimed to be of an urgent, minor or technical nature in order to ensure that there is no attempt to push through amendments which should properly receive more comprehensive scrutiny and public comment.
Having said all that, I do want to thank the Attorney-General and his staff for the collaborative and positive way in which they have carried forward those parts of Labor’s commitments under the Labor-Greens agreement for which the attorney has carriage. I think it has been done in a timely manner and I think it has been done in a cooperative manner. I hope that these changes will improve the conduct of this place.
I also note Mrs Dunne’s comments in the speech that she just made. I think that they were thoughtful comments, and I have certainly taken note of them myself. They are something we need to remain mindful of as we see how the operation of this standing order rolls out. If we find that we do have significant problems, then we may need to come back to deal with them. It is important that we continue to strive to make improvements but be open to accepting that they perhaps need adjustment or further consideration on the way.
Having made those comments, I commend these amendments to the Assembly and indicate that the Greens will be supporting both Mrs Dunne’s amendment as well as the original motion put forward by the attorney.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for the Environment, Climate Change and Water, Minister for Energy and Minister for Police and Emergency Services) (11.06): The government is inclined to support Mrs Dunne’s amendment. Indeed, in every respect it narrows the application of the standing order and applies it only to government amendments to government or executive bills. That is, I think, a reasonable approach. It does create a consistency in the application of the standing order to a greater degree than perhaps was first proposed.
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