Page 5871 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 7 December 2010

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Question put:

That standing and temporary orders be suspended.

The Assembly voted—

Question so resolved in the negative.

Motion (by Mrs Dunne) negatived:

That debate be adjourned.

MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (4.27): The opposition will support this bill, which is one in a series of omnibus legislation to amend laws administered by the Department of Justice and Community Safety. In doing so, however, I want to draw particular attention to the amendments to the Security Industry Act. Once again, we see an attempt by a recalcitrant Attorney-General to sneak substantive policy change amendments through in omnibus legislation.

The amendments are part of a suite of changes that are being made under a COAG agreement to create a national seamless economy. In itself, this is a good thing because it means that business and employees can operate under a common set of rules across the nation. This creates business efficiency and allows business to focus on its business rather than on red tape. For this ACT government there is an incentive, but it carries a catch. The incentive to adopt the national approach is money—millions, in fact. The catch is that something has to be done in relation to the new laws—to have laws in place by 31 December for operation on 1 January next year.

So, Mr Assistant Speaker, you would think that any efficient Attorney-General and any efficient government would get their act together with plenty of time to spare to ensure the legislation gets across the line in time. But, no, not with this lazy Attorney-General and not with this lazy ACT Labor government. All through this year we have had week after week of early adjournments because this government had insufficient business to fill the Assembly’s programs on sitting days. And then we get to the end of the year and there is a flurry of activity—a rush of new legislation and a rush of activity because, all of a sudden, this lazy government suddenly realises that it has the potential to miss out on millions of dollars if it does not get its act together.

The process goes like this: the Attorney-General sits down and thinks, “How can we sneak this through without drawing too much attention to it?” First, he buries it in

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