Page 3892 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 29 October 2013
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National Association of Specialist Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. I received a response from the ACT chairman of RANZCOG and the Australian president of NASOG. I quote:
Dear Mr Hanson,
Re: Statute Law Amendment Bill 2013 (No 2)
I have concerns about this bill as:
- It is a controversial matter that sees the introduction for the first time of nurses/ midwives being able to admit patients to a hospital without input from a doctor
- there is a potential for reduction in safety as doctors are called in late for obstetrical emergencies
- it has been rushed with no consultation with RANZCOG or NASOG
Based on that email that I have received from the local chair and national president, it is difficult to consider that what is being debated here, which is meant to be a SLAB, is in any way uncontroversial.
Let me go through what we were advised in the tabling speech was the effect of this legislation. I read from the tabling speech by the minister:
The Statute Law Amendment Bill 2013 (No 2) makes statute law revision amendments to ACT legislation under guidelines for the technical amendments program approved by the government. The program provides for amendments that are minor or technical and non-controversial …
It is difficult to argue that this is non-controversial when I have the local ACT chair of the college and the national president of the national association, who is one and the same person, saying it is controversial. It is difficult for anyone in this place to stand up and then say that this is just something that is technical and minor in its nature.
The minister has said that statute law amendment bills serve an important purpose of improving the overall quality of the ACT statute book so that it is kept up to date and things are easier to find, read and understand. He has also said:
… the statute book has been created from various jurisdictional sources over a long period, it reflects the various drafting practices, language usage, printing formats and styles used throughout the years.
Anyway, when you read the tabling speech it is pretty clear that there is no sense that anything in it was going to be in any way controversial. It has occurred that this is the case. I accept that this is somewhat late notice. This was legislation that was tabled in the last sitting period. It has taken a bit of toing and froing between my office and the minister’s office to identify whether there may be elements that are controversial; then, when we have forwarded it to the various representatives of stakeholder groups, they have come back and said it is.
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