Page 983 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 31 March 1993
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MR BERRY: We have already said that 15 unions have signed on the dotted line and are part of that agreement, and some are not. Others are negotiating with a view to being part of that agreement. Each one of those arrangements will be tested against the overall agreement, and we will ensure that at the end of the day we can say to all of those unions who came on board in the first instance, "We have observed our commitment. We have made sure that all of the agreements reached with other unions who came on later are consistent with the overall agreement". I expect that any instructions that were given to ACTEW were given in accordance with the relevant requirements, and I have no reason to question that.
Mr Cornwell: Directive, rather than instructions.
MR BERRY: Those directives were given in the interests of preserving the overall agreement, on which we have given a commitment not only to the unions here in the Territory who represent Government Service workers but to the people of the ACT. We have said that we have an agreement that we have mirrored from the Commonwealth Labor Government, which is interested in looking after workers in the Territory. We have picked up that agreement and we intend to make sure that it sticks in the Territory.
Mr Cornwell: Under section 37?
MR BERRY: I do not know what you are referring to.
Prostitution Legislation
MR MOORE: Madam Speaker, my question is directed to Mr Connolly, the Attorney-General. I gave him some notice of this question. The Prostitution Act and the Prostitution (Consequential Amendments) Act were gazetted on Tuesday, 1 December 1992. At that stage, section 1, namely, the title of the Act, was commenced. I further noticed, on the tabling of regulations at the beginning of this week, that you were setting a fee for registration under the Act at $50. At what date do you expect the Acts to commence? Will they go to the full six months under the commencement provisions of subsection 2(3)?
MR CONNOLLY: I thank Mr Moore for his question, of which he did give me notice a week or so ago. The Prostitution Act is in the process of being commenced. We have commenced the start of the Act. We have regulations now being made. We have appointed a public servant, Mr Brown, who is the Registrar of Liquor Licences, as the person who will have responsibility for certain decisions under the Act. We are in the process of setting up a committee involving workers in the sex industry to advise on the implementation of the Act. I hope to have the Act in force before the automatic cut-in of the deadline.
Whatever happens, there will not be a situation, of which you had raised the possibility, whereby it would be open slather for brothels in residential areas of Canberra. I can assure you that the process of implementation will be smooth. Whatever happens, there will not be the possibility of people being able to take advantage of a loophole in the law to operate brothels in residential areas of Canberra. The wishes of the Assembly in relation to the regulation of prostitution in this Territory will be brought into full effect.
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