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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 5 Hansard (6 May) . . Page.. 1563 ..

MR CORBELL (continuing):

Mr Speaker, this new amendment amends clause 10, regulation 6A-the criteria for appointment of government certifier. The amendment provides for this provision to apply at any time when a builder or leaseholder is unable to obtain a private certifier. The legislation, as introduced, allowed for the certifier of last resort to be accessed only if the development application was lodged prior to the introduction of this bill.

The amendment provides for the certifier of last resort to be accessed, regardless of when the development application was lodged, so that development applications post the introduction of this bill can also seek the services of the government certifier as a certifier of last resort.

Amendment agreed to.

Clause 10, as amended, agreed to.

Remainder of bill, by leave, taken as a whole and agreed to.

Title agreed to.

Bill, as amended, agreed to.

Agents Bill 2003

MR STEFANIAK (11.24): The opposition will be supporting this bill. The bill has had a fairly long gestation period. I can recall releasing a discussion paper on the bill back in April, 2001, so it certainly has had a fair growth period. There has been a lot of consultation, and I will come to that.

Generally, the opposition is very happy with the bill. It is along the lines of what we anticipated and there has been some very good consultation with the industry. I thank the Attorney for the briefing given to me, and the officers in the department who assisted there. I commend them for conducting a very good consultation with the industry over a lengthy period of time.

I had some concerns in relation to the consumer compensation fund and the statutory interest account. I will read out basically what is proposed to occur with those. I say, however, that because that is a bit different we will be keeping a good watch on exactly how it operates. I would think it should be okay, but it is something we will be monitoring.

The amount of money currently standing in the community compensation fund is $2.2 million. Funds are received from the interest on real estate, agents' trust accounts, licence and registration fees from real estate, travel, and employment agents, and from interest earned on funds invested by the Agents Board kept in a statutory interest

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