Page 3526 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 12 September 2017
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impact statement. The report was circulated to members when the Assembly was not sitting. I commend the report to the Assembly.
ACT Health assets
Ministerial statement
MS FITZHARRIS (Yerrabi—Minister for Health and Wellbeing, Minister for Transport and City Services and Minister for Higher Education, Training and Research) (11.33), by leave: Regarding the costs that Mrs Dunne raised, my ministerial statement earlier this morning on the maintenance of ACT Health assets inadvertently did not include this information. As I outlined in my statement, the package of works underway in terms of upgrading and maintaining ACT Health assets is a significant and complex package of works. The total completion cost of each package of works is not yet finalised, as the UMAHA program is being continuously developed. I would be open to providing that information in the appropriate format at the completion of each work package. I add that the regular financial reporting is provided to the Assembly through the tabling of relevant documents, questions taken on notice, the annual report and budget estimates processes.
Statute Law Amendment Bill 2017
Debate resumed from 24 August 2017, on motion by Mr Ramsay:
That this bill be agreed to in principle.
MR HANSON (Murrumbidgee) (11.34): The Canberra Liberals will be supporting this bill. We have been through the standard consultation processes with the legal profession, and this piece of legislation is a good example of what a SLAB should be. We have seen in the past in this place, and I have raised this point many times, that a statute law amendment bill has been used to try to pursue a more significant policy agenda. That is not the purpose of these bills, and this bill is consistent with what it should be. I thank the Attorney-General for that. We have had previous conversations about it, and I thank him for that.
This particular bill includes amendments to the Annual Reports (Government Agencies) Act 2004, the City Renewal Authority and Suburban Land Agency Act 2017, the Residential Tenancies Act 1997 and the Residential Tenancies Regulation 1998. Turning first to the annual reports, it amends that act to insert a new section 9A in part 3, to provide that the Chief Minister is the minister with the responsibility for a state of the service report. The City Renewal Authority and Suburban Land Agency Act 2017 has actually been a matter of significant debate, and the whole system has been cause for much concern. I will not re-litigate in great detail some of the concerns that have been raised, but in essence the effect is that the Treasurer will have the function of making directions in relation to land acquisition by the City Renewal Authority or the Suburban Land Agency instead of the minister.
The explanatory statement states that this will ensure transparency and consistency with the broader accountability framework established under the act. This is really a clean-up of a bit of a mess, to be honest. It seems to be a good fix-up, but
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