Page 5438 - Week 15 - Tuesday, 8 December 2009
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information about workplace rights and responsibilities. The Greens believe that an informed, responsible worker should be given the choice of whether or not to join a union. We believe that joining a union and working together to protect the rights of your fellow employees is a fundamentally good thing. However, a legislated requirement that permits the union to be the sole definitive source of information for a worker prior to their employment creates difficulties in ensuring that a security employee receives comprehensive information about their rights and responsibilities, particularly in the event of industrial disputes between the union and the potential employer.
We expect the government to be able to undertake the required consultation, sit down with the employers and unions, and come back to the Assembly with a more widely accepted model that achieves the same objective. I make it clear that we are happy to consider a new model as soon as practicable, given the essential intent of these provisions. We look forward to discussing with the government new ideas to achieve the intended objective that has been proposed in this legislation.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for the Environment, Climate Change and Water, Minister for Energy and Minister for Police and Emergency Services) (11.59), in reply: This bill is the 23rd bill in a series of legislation that concerns the Justice and Community Safety portfolio. As members have noted, the bill contains a number of amendments to the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal—ACAT—legislation, the Trustee Companies Act 1947 and the Security Industry Act 2003. I would like to discuss each of these elements in a little more detail before turning to the last issue, which is the Security Industry Act.
During the establishment and initial operation of the new ACAT, a small number of additional transitional issues have been identified. After consultation with the ACAT, courts and other stakeholders, I have decided to amend the transitional regulations. This bill will re-enact those temporary modifications as permanent amendments to the statute books. These amendments will ensure that the final stages of transition from the former tribunal system to the ACAT will continue to run smoothly.
The ACAT amendments include a new section 115D in the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act to allow ACT government agencies the option to pay ACAT application fees into the ACAT trust account on a quarterly basis. The quarterly payment option will allow agencies to reduce their transaction costs by remitting accumulated fees directly to the trust account at the end of each quarter, rather than attaching an application fee to each individual application.
The bill also reintroduces a provision dealing with the naming of lawyers prior to the expiry of the appeal period for occupational discipline matters. New section 423A of the Legal Profession Act 2006 prohibits publication of the names of parties to disciplinary proceedings until the proceedings, including any appeal, have concluded. This section balances two important rights contained in the Human Rights Act, being the right to a fair trial, contained in section 21, and the right to privacy and reputation, in section 12.
The bill amends the Magistrates Court Act 1930 to allow for continuation of legal representation from ACAT hearings to any potential enforcement proceedings in the
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