Page 5372 - Week 14 - Thursday, 19 November 2009
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This bill is yet another example of the commitment and dedication of the Office of Parliamentary Counsel to a good legislation register. The work that they do to ensure that the ACT’s legislation register remains contemporary, accessible and consistent is much valued and appreciated. The opposition is pleased to support the bill.
MR SMYTH (Brindabella) (5.38): I wish to say a few words on this bill. I think that consultation is very important. I spoke to the club industry about this bill and they were quite sad that they had not been consulted. There is a pattern here. Earlier we had another bill where, indeed, another industry had not been consulted by the Treasurer. It is very important.
One of the big issues at the last election was consultation. It does seem that the government has not learnt its lesson. I will just say those few words. It is important that we involve the community in these processes.
MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo) (5.38): The Greens will be supporting the Statute Law Amendment Bill (No 2). The bill makes a wide range of amendments, all of which improve the ACT’s statute book. The amendments update the laws of the ACT to make them clearer and easy to access, and the Greens fully support that objective. The amendments are minor and technical and are necessary to keep the statute book up to date. By themselves, the amendments would not be sufficient to warrant separate amendment bills on an act-by-act basis.
In total, the bill amends over 100 pieces of legislation and regulation. Statute law amendment bills such as these certainly are the best way to make these necessary changes. I thank the staff from the Office of Parliamentary Counsel and other departmental staff who have worked on the bill.
The majority of the amendments are minor and technical changes. I will not go through each specific amendment and make comments. It is enough to say that we have tracked through the changes and agree that the majority of them fit into the minor and technical category.
There are a couple of interesting points to raise, however, on how one of the amendments will be implemented. Section 105 of the Casino Control Act is amended to disallow food and beverage workers, valet parking officers and cleaners from accepting tips. This will bring them into line with the rest of casino staff who are already prevented from receiving tips.
The reasoning behind this is clear. For a customer to tip staff in a gaming environment opens up the potential for an expectation that the staff will then favourably treat the customer. These are dangerous grounds for staff to enter on to, and the Greens support the clarification that the no tipping rule applies to all casino staff.
What is important to note, however, is that it is an offence for staff to accept a tip. The penalty is 50 penalty units, six months imprisonment or both. That is a significant penalty and reflects the serious nature of casino staff accepting tips. I draw the Attorney-General’s attention to this matter and point out that educating people about this clarification may become important.
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