Page 1665 - Week 05 - Thursday, 5 May 2016
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
disallowance period has passed. The disallowance period is six sitting days, and this bill removes the prohibition on the minister granting deeds of entitlement until after the six-sitting-day disallowance period has passed. The ACT government are not adhering to proper process. They are dispensing with the usual six-sitting-day disallowance period and dispensing with scrutiny of this bill by the scrutiny committee.
Earlier today I happened to hear Mr Rattenbury talking about the FOI bill. One of the things he said was that he wanted to foster a culture of openness and transparency and improve government accountability. So on the one hand we are talking about openness, transparency and accountability while on the other hand we are taking away that very openness, transparency and accountability. We are removing the role of the Legislative Assembly that has been accepted for many years.
Scrutiny plays a vital role in our system of parliamentary democracy. For example, I will quote from a paper named Parliament and accountability: the role of parliamentary oversight committees:
An effective system accountability of the Executive to Parliament, backed up by rigorous processes of audit, reporting and scrutiny is fundamental to the proper operation of a Parliamentary democracy.
I am not quite sure whether this is simply that the government is so keen to progress their renewable energy targets that they feel they can dispense with any proper process or whether it is just a matter of political hubris. Our objection here is not about the renewable energy target; it is about respect for proper process. I am a bit disappointed that this has not been adhered to in this case.
In fact, when we heard that the bill was coming on on Tuesday, we asked for an urgent briefing, which took place at about 3.30 on Friday afternoon. At that time, I had not seen any copy of the bill or the explanatory statement. It is hard to ask questions in a briefing when you have not seen any of the material that you are supposedly getting briefed about. Once again, a demonstration of arrogance and lack of adherence to proper process by this government, who think they can just ride rough shod over anything and do whatever they want in the Assembly. They have no regard for our traditions of democracy.
To the content of the bill itself, the next generation renewables program will be supported by a fourth reverse auction, which opened on 1 April and closes soon on 13 May. The ACT government is pushing this bill as quickly as it can so it gives it the legislative capacity to award the licences under the auction. It did not want to wait until the standard six-sitting-day disallowance period had passed to start granting the feed-in tariff entitlements. It is a bit last minute, it is a bit rushed. I do not understand why they did not table this legislation earlier. It is not as if the auction came as a sudden surprise to the government. It is something that surely has been in train for quite some time. Maybe someone had a brainwave, “Oh, actually, our legislation doesn’t allow us to do that. Perhaps we should make some changes”. A bit chaotic, a bit reactive, and not the proper way to run the territory. It smacks of arrogance; it smacks of someone feeling that they can do whatever they like.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video