Page 1740 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 17 October 1989
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Mr Speaker, the Act will be there as a safeguard, and I am not suggesting in any way that it is to overcome any current abuses; it will be a necessary safeguard in a society that has an increasingly ageing population. The one outstanding issue about the Bill, which I will indicate before I sit down, is that the draftsmen have gone for the wider interpretation of the test we should impose upon a person when that person creates a power in another to deal with his or her affairs - that is, that under proposed new section 3A the donor only has to be able to understand the nature and effect of the power. It was suggested, in New South Wales in a decision, also that the donee should know whom he or she was going to appoint to look after his or her affairs, understand who that would be and further understand the nature of the things that that donee would or could do.
Societal requirements change. It is only a matter of years since we established condominium retirement villages and aged persons unit housing arrangements. I am sure the law will change and evolve in that area. It is very difficult for people to predict how they would like a donee to exercise powers. The draftsmen are to be congratulated for accepting the recommendations of the Law Reform Commission, taking on board a less stringent test and not repeating the problems which have arisen in the United Kingdom in this area. Mr Speaker, the Act should be followed, in the Rally's opinion, by a proper community education system, starting with the lawyers and then travelling to community groups - in particular, the homes for the aged, the hospices and the other places where powers of attorney are likely to come up.
There is also a pressing need to inform the travel industry of the need to ensure at times that persons who are travelling, sometimes on lengthy trips abroad, have considered the need to give a power of attorney to some other party before they leave. I am only speaking in general to the Bill. This is an excellent piece of legislation, and the Rally congratulates the commissioner who conducted the community law reform process, Nicholas Seddon, with the very able assistance he received from many parties, including Robin Creyke. I commend the Bill to the house.
MR STEFANIAK (3.57): Very briefly - I will not go over ground which Mr Collaery has ably covered - this Bill is a very timely and useful piece of legislation. It has been drafted substantially in accordance with the Law Reform Commission's recommendations. It provides in its schedule a detailed, comprehensive and effective enduring power of attorney. The only slight problem which we had with it was the initial addition in proposed new section 17(2) of the words "or a trustee company nominated by the Public Trustee".
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