Page 3233 - Week 10 - Thursday, 25 September 2014
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I thank members for their forbearance in relation to that detail but these are important changes that do have impacts on people’s liberty, personal privacy and freedom of expression and need to be addressed in detail. I commend the amendments to members.
MR HANSON (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition) (12.24): That was 25 minutes of our lives we are never going to get back and should never have occurred. This is sloppy process. When a speech on 39 amendments to a bill goes longer than the in-principle debate I think you have got problems with the way that the process is being followed. I think that is clearly the point here today. I raised concerns with this legislation when I spoke in the in-principle stage and identified then that was poor process.
There is a review being conducted in New South Wales on certain aspects that are similar to the provisions in this bill and it would have been prudent to wait for that. I note that the ticketing elements are not really being substantively addressed by these 39 amendments today. Regardless, we are here. We have to deal with it no matter how unsatisfactory this process has been.
I take this opportunity to commend the scrutiny of bills committee for the work that they have done in identifying a number of the flaws with this legislation. I think that process has strengthened this bill. It is good to see that in action, working as it should.
It will be a relief to hear that I will not go through each of those 39 amendments in any great detail. What I will say, though, is that in the main we welcome those amendments because they do improve the bill. I particularly note, with regard to providing that higher threshold for declaring or notifying events, we need to make sure that we do not see events beyond things like the world cup or the Asian Cup becoming essentially notifiable events. I think that by making that a disallowable instrument is a good measure, and I welcome that.
I raised my concerns with this in the in-principle stage. Nothing has changed. I think the fact that we have 39 amendments before us today probably validates concerns that the opposition raise. That said, this is obviously going through today. The opposition will have a keen eye on how this rolls out and how it is implemented on the ground to make sure that none of those powers that are being essentially given to the government and the minister today are in any way misused.
MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo) (12.27): During my in-principle speech on this bill I talked about the need for the government to make amendments in response to various concerns about civil liberties to ensure the legislation strikes the appropriate balance between security, safety and efficiency on the one hand and appropriate protection of people’s rights and liberties on the other. I do appreciate that the government has gone to some effort to amend the bill in order to address the issues raised.
I also note that in the original drafting of the bill there were several improvements to the version of similar changes that were introduced in New South Wales. It does
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