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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 11 Hansard (6 November) . . Page.. 3750 ..

MR KAINE (continuing):

know how Mr Whitecross imagines that the provisions of the ACT Freedom of Information Act are going to be applied to a national organisation like NEMMCO. What we are doing here is simply providing that, because they are not ACT bodies but are national bodies, they will not be subject to ACT FOI law. By removing them, you are asserting that they shall be. I do not know how you are going to make that work.

Furthermore, bringing these bodies under the ambit of the FOI Act but excluding them from the Ombudsman Act is totally pointless.

Mr Moore: No; the Ombudsman Act stays.

MR KAINE: It is inconsistent.

Mr Moore: That is what he is saying; yes.

MR KAINE: He is not excising the provisions in connection with the Ombudsman Act from my Bill. Presumably, these bodies will not be subject to the ACT Ombudsman Act. By excising the bits about the FOI Act, they nominally become subject to ACT FOI law. I submit that you cannot make it stick. I do not know how he is going to do it. We do not support the amendments, because we think they are illogical, irrational and cannot be made to work anyway.

MR MOORE (4.23): I rise to support the illogical, irrational and "will not be able to be made to work" amendments moved by Mr Whitecross. If I can pull my tongue out of my cheek, I will explain the way I see it. It is not that Mr Whitecross is seeking to apply freedom of information legislation and the Public Interest Disclosure Act to NECO or NEMMCO; rather, it is the agent of NECO or NEMMCO we are talking about. That is what is referred to. This applies to the agent, and the agent in this case is likely to be ACTEW. Why would we exempt ACTEW from freedom of information legislation or from the Public Interest Disclosure Act in so far as this applies? That is my reading of the legislation, and it seems to me that is why it is actually quite logical, quite rational and quite meaningful for us to apply the Freedom of Information Act as well as the Public Interest Disclosure Act to ACTEW in its role as an agent or, for that matter, anyone else who is fulfilling this kind of role. It is for those reasons that I think they are quite appropriate amendments, and I shall support them.

MS TUCKER (4.25): The Greens will also be supporting these amendments. I think it is quite right of Mr Whitecross to point out that there is already in the FOI Act the ability for these issues to be addressed.

Amendments agreed to.

Bill, as a whole, as amended, agreed to.

Bill, as amended, agreed to.

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