Page 5080 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 26 October 2010
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When the Liquor Act was debated, section 129 was inserted by the Assembly to protect the confidentiality of certain information contained in a risk assessment management plan. The government’s decision to remove the offence provision altogether during the debate on the substantive bill by not requiring a licensee or commercial permit holder to make the RAMP available for public inspection at all resolves the issue of confidentiality and removes the need for sections 128 and 129.
New section 136(2)(a), which was inadvertently omitted from the act, has been inserted to make it an offence when a licensee knows about and allows another person to conduct a prohibited promotional activity at the premises.
Clarification of the powers of entry in section 154 is necessary to remove any doubt about the extent of the power of police and inspectors to enter licensed premises at any time when there are reasonable grounds for suspecting that liquor is being sold on the premises. The power has always been there and new section 154(1)(b)(a) removes any doubt about its operation. It also provides clarity for authorised officers in relation to the extent of their powers of entry under the new act.
Sections 183 and 184 are amended to include critical pieces of legislation which, if not complied with, would subject licensees and permit holders to occupational disciplinary processes under the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act.
There is a range of other amendments and issues arising but I will not address them all now at the in-principle stage; I will leave that to the detail stage. I simply make the point that this is a complex piece of legislation. The government and my department are working very hard to get the new framework up and operating in the time frame that the Assembly has requested. I believe that every practical step is being taken to achieve that.
There is naturally going to be some concern amongst licensees as they get to grips with the new legislative provisions. Those of us in here have been familiar with them for quite some time but obviously for licensees it is a much shorter period of time. I understand that and that is why ORS is working diligently with my department and with licensees to make it clear what their obligations are—what steps and processes they need to go through—so that we can have a smooth transition to the new legislation in time for 1 December. I thank members for their support of the bill.
MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra): Madam Assistant Speaker, under standing order 47, I seek to explain a matter in relation to the comments that were made by the minister.
MADAM ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ms Le Couteur): Mrs Dunne, you have the floor.
MRS DUNNE: Thank you, Madam Assistant Speaker. The minister referred to the document that I tabled in question time today. I have checked with the Clerk. It was my intention to table the full document. I have nothing to hide. The point that needs to be made is that people could only find things out by going to the website. It was not provided to them. It was not a matter of hiding some matters. I thought that I had
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