Page 4126 - Week 09 - Thursday, 26 August 2010
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attorney has given the industry positive feedback on this proposal. However, this positive feedback did not materialise in the bill. My amendment seeks to deliver on the industry’s representations.
The industry has also said to me that the Attorney-General’s new legislation allows considerable power to lie in the commissioner with little involvement or consultation with industry. Industry have told me of their concerns about the exercise of these powers. These powers carry a low level of accountability and transparency, except through the legal and expensive processes of the ACAT and the bureaucratic process of annual reporting. It is important that another level of scrutiny and engagement be available to the industry at an official level.
We also note that there is a plan for the review of the operation of the new laws in two years time. I think that this advisory board would be the appropriate vehicle for the conduct of that review. It would take it out of a situation where the bureaucracy was reviewing its own legislation. In an area of such importance, where there is such an impact on people’s businesses and livelihoods, as well as the safety of people in the ACT, that level of transparency is important. Industry have told me that they would like an opportunity to formally provide advice to the minister from time to time at an official level. Industry also want to make representation to the board at an official level.
With those matters in mind, I commissioned the drafting of an amendment that establishes an advisory board. You should note that this is a board which is advisory only and does not have decision-making powers. Nonetheless, creating the advisory board at a statutory level gives the industry and those people interested in the operation of liquor licensing in the ACT a status and profile that would otherwise be difficult for them to achieve and maintain, particularly at a bureaucratic and political level.
One of the board’s functions is to provide advice to the minister, if so requested, about matters associated with the operation of the act. This will enable the board, should the minister require it, to keep the minister informed on an ongoing basis about the impact of the legislation on the industry and the community generally and to recommend improvements and modifications.
Considering the size and importance of the industry to Canberra’s hospitality and tourism sector, the money the industry will be paying to the government by way of licence and permit fees and the principles in the legislation about harm minimisation and public safety, and now personal responsibility, an advisory board would very likely be a very useful resource for the minister and the community at large.
Another function of the advisory board will be to scrutinise the functions of the commissioner. This addresses the concern of the industry about the powers that this legislation vests in the commissioner and gives the industry an opportunity not only to keep an eye on things from a red tape point of view but also to provide the commissioner with in-the-trenches advice about what is happening in the industry and how the processes, as they evolve, are impacting on the operations of the industry.
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