Page 1285 - Week 04 - Thursday, 8 May 2014
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Madam Deputy Speaker, by far the majority of this bill is to be supported. In doing so I take the opportunity to once again acknowledge the good work of the Parliamentary Counsel’s Office. It is their good work that results in many of these amendments. Their commitment and dedication to making the ACT statute book the best and most successful in the country again is to be applauded.
MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo—Minister for Territory and Municipal Services, Minister for Corrections, Minister for Housing, Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs and Minister for Ageing) (11.36): I will be supporting the passage of this bill. It contains technical amendments to the Legislation Act and to a variety of other acts to update and improve the form of the legislation. These are changes such as redundant references and typographical errors. These are proposed by the ACT’s parliamentary counsel, and they are no doubt discovered as they go about their everyday work of preparing new legislation and amendments to existing legislation.
My office and I undertook the unenviable task of looking through each of these amendments, and I can confirm that in our opinion they are indeed minor and technical.
In addition the bill makes a number of minor policy changes. It changes the Corrections Management Act to allow the minister to appoint as adjudicators under the act people who are not necessarily a magistrate. Adjudicators review disciplinary matters and segregation decisions under the act. This person needs to be suitably qualified but does not necessarily need to be a magistrate. It is a change that will help remove the burden on current sitting magistrates. I note Mr Wall has circulated an amendment to this section. I will flag now that I will not be supporting it, but I will discuss that further when we get to that amendment.
The bill also removes the requirement for the Cultural Facilities Corporation to provide quarterly reports to the minister which are tabled in the Assembly. As a member of the Assembly for almost six years, I have been receiving these reports regularly. I agree with the explanatory statement’s comment that they are not usually the subject of discussion in the Assembly and that the information in them is available elsewhere, such as in the annual report.
The bill also clarifies that a person complying with their duties under the Dangerous Substances Act will also be complying with the corresponding duties under the Work Health and Safety Act. In relation to Mr Smyth’s foreshadowed amendment on this issue, I understand the rationale for the amendment but I am assured that the government is currently working through harmonisation of the dangerous substances and work health and safety duties. I will reserve my further comments on that until later in the discussion. However, at this stage I will be supporting the bill in principle.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Minister for Workplace Safety and Industrial Relations and Minister for the Environment and Sustainable Development) (11.38), in reply: I thank members for their comments in relation to this bill. As members have observed, the changes in this bill are minor and non-controversial. It carries on with a technical program of amendments which the government pursues to maintain the currency, accuracy and workability of the territory’s statute book.
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