Page 4805 - Week 15 - Thursday, 8 December 1994
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Mr Humphries asks why we do not have a regulatory regime for backyard motor repairers. We are not keen to regulate and license everything that moves in the ACT. Through COAG and through the whole micro-economic reform process there is a general thrust around Australia for governments to be cautious about the extent to which they regulate everything. Nonetheless, we are doing a lot of work with the Motor Trades Association, particularly in the second-hand motor vehicles area, and we are shortly to - - -
Mrs Carnell: They say that you have done nothing.
MR CONNOLLY: If they say that, Mrs Carnell, they are saying a very different thing from what they are saying to us, because, within the next few days, we will be tabling a massive and comprehensive review of the second-hand motor vehicle dealers Act - - -
Mrs Carnell: How do you table it? Where are you going to table it?
MR CONNOLLY: We will not be tabling it; we will be releasing it to the public. It is the result of a couple of years - - -
Mr De Domenico: A big launch?
MR CONNOLLY: Yes, no doubt it will be.
Mr De Domenico: A great big launch?
MR CONNOLLY: Yes, probably so. It represents a lot of work that has gone on with us and the Motor Trades Association. If the Motor Trades Association is telling you that nothing has happened about that, they are severely misinforming you, because they have been working with us for over two years. We do not have - - -
Mrs Carnell: They say that you have been slacking around, and they are concerned.
MR CONNOLLY: You are pathetic, Mrs Carnell; you really are. We do not have active plans for an interventionary regulatory regime. The issue of safety which Mr Humphries raises, which is one that we are all concerned with, is something that my colleague Mr Lamont has recently addressed with that major paper on the review of motor vehicle registry arrangements in the ACT and safety. Rest assured that it is something that we are taking a collegiate approach to. We are not promising to go immediately into a regulatory regime.
MR HUMPHRIES: I have a supplementary question, Madam Speaker. The Minister seems unconvinced that it is a good idea to do this. Does he consider it inappropriate that people deregistered from practising as mechanics in New South Wales should be able to cross the border and set up legally here in the ACT? Does he also think it is ridiculous that the situation ensues where a person requires a licence to work on a car's air-conditioning in the ACT but is not required to have a licence if they work on brakes and steering?
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