Page 1012 - Week 04 - Thursday, 7 May 2020
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power and therefore extraordinary scrutiny. That is what the opposition will do, in our job as legislators and also on behalf of ACT taxpayers.
There are many pieces of legislation that are amended as a result of this bill. Many, especially those in my portfolio space, relate to giving the government flexibility with regard to the financial schemes that are in place to support businesses, primarily, and also households with the various schemes the government has on offer. That is why we think the mechanism in the Taxation Administration Act in particular is well worthwhile. Having the three schemes for exemptions, waivers, and deferrals is, I think, a clean way to deal with the schemes that have been announced already and also any possible future scheme that is yet to be announced. Having those three schemes, those three frameworks, is a good mechanism to cleanly allow those schemes to be operational.
One of the concerns I have about the legislation is that much of what is being put forward comes by way of disallowable instruments. Whilst we appreciate the fact that they are disallowable instruments, and the intention that this Assembly can therefore disallow and scrutinise those instruments, the nature of the Legislation Act, in conjunction with our sitting calendar, means that the disallowable instruments may not be presented to the Assembly in a way that allows the Assembly to appropriately scrutinise them. Later I will be moving an amendment to the Legislation Act that will give additional opportunity for the Assembly to scrutinise the disallowable instruments and subordinate legislation that gets put forward as a result of the bill before us.
In conclusion, the opposition is supportive of the legislation that is before us. But, like all things, it is going to depend on how it is applied. We will make sure that we do our job in scrutinising everything the government does with these extraordinary powers.
MR RATTENBURY (Kurrajong—Minister for Climate Change and Sustainability, Minister for Corrections and Justice Health, Minister for Justice, Consumer Affairs and Road Safety and Minister for Mental Health) (4.36): The ACT Greens will be supporting the COVID-19 Emergency Response Legislation Amendment Bill. That is our general party position.
As a minister, I have a range of important amendments that occur in a number of my portfolios, including to the Corrections Management Act, the Crimes (Sentence Administration) Act, the Human Rights Commission Act and the Retirement Villages Act. I will touch briefly on those because the Chief Minister was not able to cover all of the provisions in his introductory remarks. I want to take the time to set out a little more of the thinking and the intention behind these amendments.
In terms of the Corrections Management Act, one of the amendments is for an extension of time in police custody. The bill amends section 30 of the Corrections Management Act to extend the time a person may be held in police custody, in a police cell, from 36 to 48 hours. Currently people taken into custody over the weekend must be transferred from the police lock-up to the Alexander Maconochie Centre if they are to be held for longer than 36 hours, before being taken to court at the earliest opportunity. In some cases this has seen people assessed, inducted and
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