Page 2750 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 6 June 2012

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Question put:

That this bill be agreed to in principle.

The Assembly voted—

Ayes 10

Noes 7

Ms Bresnan

Ms Hunter

Mr Barr

Mr Hargreaves

Mr Coe

Ms Le Couteur

Dr Bourke

Ms Porter

Mr Doszpot

Mr Rattenbury

Ms Burch

Mrs Dunne

Mr Seselja

Mr Corbell

Mr Hanson

Mr Smyth

Ms Gallagher

Question so resolved in the affirmative.

Bill agreed to in principle.

Detail stage

Bill, by leave, taken as a whole.

MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for Police and Emergency Services and Minister for the Environment and Sustainable Development) (4.26): I move amendment No 1 circulated in my name [see schedule 1 at page 2783].

This amendment will delay the commencement of the bulk of the bill until 1 July 2013. Whilst the government has indicated its opposition to the bill as a whole, as the Assembly has determined to support the bill in principle we believe that the Assembly must give consideration to the issue of its commencement date. The initiatives in the bill will require funding for additional official visitors, for additional functions to be given to those visitors, for additional visits and potentially for accommodation. There is currently no funding for any of these functions.

The bill will also require significant changes to current practices. Given these reasons, the government proposes that time be provided for within the bill to allow for these implementation issues to be addressed prior to the bill’s commencement, and that is why I propose the amendment circulated in my name.

MS BRESNAN (Brindabella) (4.27): I do take Mr Corbell’s point on this, and we will support the amendment. It does not cause a substantial delay to the scheme. It is three months, which will change, and at least we will be getting this scheme here in the ACT, so that is the positive thing with that. As I said earlier in my speech, we did dispute some of the costs that the government had put forward. Nevertheless we will support this amendment.

MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (4.28): The Canberra Liberals will support the attorney’s amendment in this instance. It does give some time to iron out some tweaks. As the aspiring minister for community services, I look forward to the challenge of fixing up the scheme and implementing it on time.

Amendment agreed to.

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