Page 1993 - Week 07 - Thursday, 17 June 1993
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FIRE BRIGADE (ADMINISTRATION) (AMENDMENT) BILL 1993
MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General, Minister for Housing and Community Services and Minister for Urban Services) (10.52): Madam Speaker, I present the Fire Brigade (Administration) (Amendment) Bill 1993.
Title read by Clerk.
MR CONNOLLY: Madam Speaker, this Bill will allow members of the Fire Brigade to receive redundancy payments on a similar basis to other members of the ACT public service. Madam Speaker, 20 Bills have been introduced inside 20 minutes this morning, which must be something of a record. I move:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
I seek leave to have my speech incorporated in Hansard.
Leave granted.
Speech incorporated at Appendix 20.
MR CONNOLLY: I present the explanatory memorandum to the Bill.
Debate (on motion by Mr Humphries) adjourned.
LEGAL AFFAIRS - STANDING COMMITTEE
Report on Access to Justice
MR HUMPHRIES (10.53): Madam Speaker, pursuant to order, I present report No. 2 of the Standing Committee on Legal Affairs entitled Access to Justice in the ACT, together with extracts from the minutes of proceedings for the committee, and I move:
That the report be noted.
Madam Speaker, I am pleased today to table the report of the Standing Committee on Legal Affairs on the cost of justice and access to justice in the ACT. In many respects, inquiring into how the legal system can be made more accessible is like inquiring into life, the universe and everything, to borrow from the title of a well-known book. The legal system in the ACT, no less than anywhere else around Australia, is centred on the courts and includes the ancillary structure of the legal profession. That system is the result of centuries of evolution.
Although no major institution in our society is arguably in so much need of change, there are few institutions which would be harder to change than the legal system. The structures of our legal system are complex and esoteric. They are administered by people who understand the system, but they are not easily accessible to those who do not. Admission to the ranks of the lawyer is like admission to a mysterious priesthood. The rights administered by these acolytes are of vital interest to many ordinary lay citizens but are couched in language which is arcane and which deals in highly stylised concepts.
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