Page 1871 - Week 05 - Thursday, 16 May 2019

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Clause 429 agreed to.

Clauses 430 to 465, by leave, taken together and agreed to.

Clause 466.

MR COE (Yerrabi—Leader of the Opposition) (5.04): We of course prefer our amendment 86, but, given the Greens’ voting habit on every one of these amendments, it is highly likely that Mr Barr’s No 50 is going to get up. Our amendment would have provided lawyers and other service providers with protections against the publication of confidential information. A regulation may require lawyers and other service providers to give information to the commission. Information may include amounts paid to applicants and claimants, costs and disbursements paid by applicants and claimants, and the timing of payments. The minister may require the commission to publish statistical data based on the information. There is nothing about the protection of commercial-in-confidence information such as there is for insurers in section 470(4) and 470(5). Therefore, our preference is for amendment 86, but I expect Mr Barr’s will get the nod.

MR BARR (Kurrajong—Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Social Inclusion and Equality, Minister for Tourism and Special Events and Minister for Trade, Industry and Investment) (5.05): Government amendment No 50 addresses concerns raised by the Bar Association and the Law Society and introduces a similar protected information provision for lawyers. The government amendment is preferable as it means that lawyers or service providers would not have to continually advise the MAI commissioner that the provided information is a trade secret. The MAI commission would not be able to publish information relating to a lawyer or stated service provider if the publication of information would disclose information that relates to the practices of a lawyer or a service provider. This provides a neater solution to the issues that have been raised by the Bar Association and the Law Society and is more practical in its implementation.

MS LE COUTEUR (Murrumbidgee) (5.05): Mr Coe, you read the mood of the room correctly, I am afraid. The Greens will support the government amendment. We appreciate that both the Liberal and government amendments do very similar things, but we think that the government’s amendment uses the protected information provisions of the bill better. This means that lawyers and service providers would not have to continually advise the MAI commissioner that protected information is a trade secret. We think this will be a slightly neater way to cover off this issue.

Amendment agreed to.

Clause 466, as amended, agreed to.

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