Page 1875 - Week 05 - Thursday, 16 May 2019
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community engagement. There are some who have been working on CTP reform for most of this decade, and possibly even heading back into the decade before this one.
This afternoon I would particularly like to acknowledge Dr Jennifer Rayner, who has led this work as director of policy and cabinet in my office. I also thank Lisa Holmes, in particular, from ACT treasury, together with Nicola Clark, Erica Lejins, Charlotte Smith, Jayne Hines, Cecilia Willis, Karen Stewart-Moore, Sue Vroombout and Sonia Sadrani for their work in developing one of the most significant legislative reforms that this Assembly will consider in this parliamentary term, and one of the most significant and lengthy debates that we have had, in fact, in our 30-year history.
This has been an important piece of work for the government. I would like to acknowledge the incredibly close and hard work with the ACT Greens—Ms Le Couteur and her staff—where the very fine detail of this legislation has been worked through over many meetings. I thank the Greens party for their detailed and considered engagement and for working closely with the government in order to achieve a reform that has been waiting for quite some time.
I am very pleased tonight with that work as a result of the citizens jury process, through the exposure draft process and through the detailed engagement, including the engagement of the opposition through the detail stage of the debate. We did not vote for many of your amendments but there were some that certainly sparked a government response. I take the opportunity to acknowledge the work of the Leader of the Opposition and his office in engaging on this matter. We have very different perspectives, obviously, on the final outcome, but I acknowledge that this has been one of the more significant issues that has come before this place.
I thank members from across all parties, staff from across all parties, and officials for their support. Finally, I thank as well the Assembly staff who have provided us with very detailed and effective running sheets to work through what has been a very significant bill. With that, I commend this legislation to the Assembly. It is a long overdue reform. Canberra motorists will benefit. I thank all members for their engagement and for their support for this legislation.
MR COE (Yerrabi—Leader of the Opposition) (5.21): I too want to extend my thanks to everybody who has contributed to this debate: in the department, the community, the jurors, members of this place and, of course, the staff of members and the staff of the Assembly. We are very disappointed with the legislation that is about to be enacted. We think that this legislation is going to leave accident victims considerably worse off. To that end, it is a dark day for all victims of motor vehicle accidents in the ACT.
The legislation is going to come into effect on 1 February next year. At that time, I expect that we are going to see many intended and unintended consequences that will be detrimental for our community. I also think there may be some concerns or some issues with regard to the human rights compatibility of aspects of the legislation. That is something that will have to be tested in other forums.
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