Page 5076 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 26 October 2010
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one staff member working on this, to provide our amendments over a week ago, it is incumbent upon the government, with the resources of the department behind them, to provide them to us in a timely fashion.
The Canberra Liberals will be supporting the consequential amendment bill but there will be substantial amendments in the detail stage.
MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo) (5.40): By way of general comments in the in-principle stage, the Greens support this bill in the broad sense as it makes a range of amendments necessary for the transition from the old Liquor Act to the new act. It was a significant reform bill that the Assembly passed earlier this year in reviewing the Liquor Act and the bill today follows it up with relatively minor but still important changes to both the new act as well as related legislation.
There are a range of amendments to the bill proposed by both the government and Mrs Dunne on behalf of the Canberra Liberals, which Mrs Dunne has already spoken to to some extent. I think important issues of principle and policy are raised by some of those amendments and I would like to flag at this stage that I will speak to each amendment as it arises as they raise quite discrete issues in some ways and ones that require perhaps some conversation at the time rather than necessarily at the in-principle stage now.
But for now it is enough to say we support the reform process that led to the Liquor Act 2010 and the consequential and transitional amendments made today. I am noting that at points along the way we thought the government could have acted more quickly but ultimately we did get there. I think that the bill broadly is a good outcome.
We will be supporting quite a few of the amendments that have been brought forward both from the government and from Mrs Dunne. I think on both counts they do pick up some important corrections, tweaks and adjustments to the legislation as passed. As I say, we will come to those later.
One specific point I would like to make is in relation to responsible service of alcohol and the six-month postponement of those requirements that this bill will grant to industry. On behalf of the Greens, I support the postponement because it appears the government have listened and have heard that people are not ready and the RSA courses will not be approved in time. So this is the sensible adjustment. Whilst certainly the Greens and most in this place would be keen to see the rollout of these important reforms that will hopefully lead to a reduction in the amount of alcohol-related violence and a more responsible drinking culture in the ACT, it is also important that we do it in an orderly way. I think this is an example of making sure that it is done in an orderly way.
One comment that I would like to make is that I would urge the government to fully advise all licensees and training providers of this change. And this is a general observation because I assume that this will take place immediately on the bill passing later this week. I cannot imagine we are going to finish it today. But at times during the reform process I think consultation and communication have not been as strong as they could be, and this is an opportunity to improve on that.
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