Page 1147 - Week 04 - Thursday, 29 March 1990
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MR STEFANIAK: Yes, indeed. We have got through quite a number of questions and I think the Opposition is certainly being given a fair go now. I think the comments raised by Ms Follett are quite spurious and really quite hypocritical.
Assembly Legislation
MR STEVENSON (5.39): Much has been said in this Assembly last year and this year to the effect "where is all the legislation?". It has become the ideal, I think, for a government - and when I say government I mean all the people in the Assembly - to feel that if they are not introducing new legislation they are not doing anything. Can I suggest that in discussions with the people that hire us, they often feel that we are doing far too much when we are introducing this never-ending stream of legislation. Indeed, Canberrans face a number of problems, one of which is that they do not have enough money, or certainly not after the Government gets its hands on it.
Mr Kaine: Not this Government, the other Government.
MR STEVENSON: You know what I mean when I talk about the Government, I mean the whole Assembly. I will discuss that one day.
Secondly, they feel that their rights are being slowly eroded and their time is being spent on filling in our forms. They also have to spend more time on complying with regulations. Perhaps the solution is not necessarily that more legislation is needed. I think an excellent argument could be raised that for every Bill that is introduced or every Act that is passed, a requirement is that one be repealed.
Mr Kaine: Or two.
MR STEVENSON: Two, okay. I think that we would certainly have enough to repeal because 3,000,000 rules and regulations have been introduced since Federation. So when next someone says, "Where is all the legislation?", perhaps a note of caution could be sounded that we should not really rush in. Let us have a look that what we are going to do is going to benefit the people of Canberra, not necessarily just cost them more money, take them more time, or reduce their freedoms.
MR JENSEN (5.42): Mr Speaker, it was interesting to hear the Leader of the Opposition make some comments before about broken promises in relation to the Government opposite. I would be happy for the next speaker from the
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