Page 1658 - Week 06 - Tuesday, 7 May 2013
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The second limb of accountability—accountability to agencies and the parliament itself—is something that the Greens have continually tried to improve. This has been through particular initiatives such as the commitment to presenting a bill to make the Auditor-General, the Electoral Commissioner and the Ombudsman officers of the parliament, which I will be delivering on in the June sitting.
It is also done in smaller ways. When we debate bills in this place, it is the Greens that are the ones who have moved amendments to clarify the scope of powers that we delegate to the executive and the Greens who have tried to ensure that there are better controls in place for delegated legislation-making powers to ensure greater oversight by the Assembly.
Members will remember just one example last year when, during debate about the energy efficiency scheme for energy retailers in the ACT, I proposed an amendment to make a delegated power a disallowable instrument rather than just a notifiable instrument. Both Labor and the Liberals voted against that amendment. For those who profess to care so much about government accountability, one has to wonder why they rejected such a simple mechanism to ensure the prospect of greater accountability in this place.
In terms of the third limb of accountability—to the public directly—the Greens have also brought a range of initiatives to this place. Members will remember that earlier this year I tabled an exposure draft of a bill to introduce major reforms to the standing rules for applications for judicial review under the Administrative Decisions (Judicial Review) Act. I can inform members that I will shortly be presenting a revised bill to the Assembly after receiving public and academic feedback. This reform will ensure that there can never be a situation where a decision that is unlawful is allowed to stand simply because there is no-one able to challenge it. This is just one example of a real initiative delivered by the Greens that will actually improve government accountability.
Additionally, at the next sitting of the Assembly I will be presenting a bill for a new freedom of information act for the ACT. The bill will seek to repeal the existing act and introduce a whole new scheme for the provision of government-held information to the community. There can be no greater improvement in openness than a robust and contemporary freedom of information scheme that properly balances the competing public interests in public access to information and ensures that there is a real public right to information.
As well as those coming bills, members will also remember that during the last Assembly my colleague Ms Le Couteur presented a bill to this place to allow for expanded standing for the merits review of planning decisions in ACAT. Planning will always be a contentious area and allowing members of the community to participate in the process and, additionally, to take action to ensure that the decisions that are made are, in fact, the correct and preferable decisions is an important part of government accountability. It was very disappointing that both the Liberals and the Labor Party opposed that bill.
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