Page 2550 - Week 07 - Thursday, 18 June 2009
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Treasurer, I would like to thank you for the officials who came. It is very rare that one gets an opportunity to embarrass a public servant, but we had some excellent background material from Mr McDonald. Much to the dismay, I think, of some of the junior staff, he was reminiscing about CTP, being a young man in the 60s and the sorts of vehicles we drove and the music that we listened to, particularly the Beatles. I would like to commend him on his taste in fine music and the fast cars of the 60s. I am sure there will be some laughter back at the office about that, but congratulations to Mr McDonald and his team; he does a good job. Every briefing you get from Tom you can trust, and clearly the work that he does has significant benefits.
Through a long gestation I look forward to the success of the scheme when it starts. Hopefully the people of the ACT will get some benefits from having competition in CTP. Of course, that is not forbidden in the ACT at this stage—anybody could operate a CTP scheme in the ACT if they wanted to—but circumstances have not allowed that to happen. We look forward to a better future. And keep listening to those Beatles records.
MS HUNTER (Ginninderra—Parliamentary Convenor, ACT Greens) (10.50): I would also like to thank Mr McDonald and his team for a very comprehensive briefing on this matter. The ACT Greens will be supporting this bill. The bill seeks to tidy up a number of amendments.
The Road Transport (Third-Party Insurance) Act 2008 established the new third-party insurance scheme which came into effect on 1 October 2008. I understand that there are some 20,000 cars and other vehicles in this category. The amendments are being drafted using best practice in third-party insurance legislation from New South Wales and Queensland.
While the changes essentially concern the incorporating of traders plates and unregistered vehicle permits into the new scheme, there was a concern around the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal not being a court having the power to levy a financial penalty on a licensed insurer, which is similar to the imposition of a fine for a criminal offence. I understand that this is not the first time the issue of the separation of powers has been raised in the Assembly. I note that the scrutiny report draws this to the attention of the Assembly in relation to this amendment bill.
The government has access to vastly greater legal resources than the Greens do. I can only assume that the departmental officers and the minister who put the amendments forward have a high degree of confidence that the amended scheme will not be overturned on appeal by a disgruntled applicant challenging the legality of an ACAT decision based on the blurring of administrative and judicial functions as raised by the scrutiny committee.
The amendment seeks to streamline the scheme in relation to third-party claims. We commend this course of action. When claimants are injured and faced with medical and legal bills, they do not need the added pressure of going through red tape to obtain the financial support needed to get their lives back on track.
As I said, the Greens will be supporting this bill.
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