Page 3426 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 14 November 2006

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Other amendments in the third category include:

• the Health Professionals Act 2004, an amendment to section 58 to allow the presidential member to order that a person undergo a stated medical, psychiatric or psychological assessment at the preliminary hearing stage,

• an amendment to principle 12 of schedule 2 of the Health Records Act;

• the Health Professionals Act, an amendment to various sections to allow the tribunal to continue to hear a matter in the absence of the lay members of the tribunal and to allow presidential members a casting vote in any decision it takes; and

• an amendment to the Health Professionals Act 2004 to reduce by one the number of lay members on the tribunal, to allow the president of the tribunal, a magistrate, to represent the community expectations of the tribunal.

I will speak more about section 59A in the detail stage, but I thank members for their contribution to the discussion. I thank Mr Smyth and Dr Foskey for taking the benefit of briefings and advice from my office. This is an example of majority government listening to the will of the Assembly, responding and making sure that, where we can make concessions and agreement on things, it is sensible to do that. Based on advice from the Assembly and based on the input of members in the process, I have been happy to make the amendments.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

Bill agreed to in principle.

Detail stage

Bill, by leave, taken as a whole.

MS GALLAGHER (Molonglo—Minister for Health, Minister for Disability and Community Services and Minister for Women) (11.55): I seek leave to move amendments Nos 1, 2 and 3 circulated in my name together.

Leave granted.

MS GALLAGHER: I move amendments Nos 1, 2 and 3 circulated in my name together [see schedule 1 at page 3481]. I table a supplementary statement to the amendments. I have spoken to these in the in-principle stage. Amendment No 1 is fairly straightforward, as are all of the amendments. Certainly Nos 1 and 3 are straightforward.

The only thing I would add in relation to amendment No 2 is that, as I said at the in-principle stage, this is a clause that has been in our legislation for some 12 years. It did go through the Castan review. I am still looking through the Castan review. I am more than happy to look at how we can make that available to members in the future.


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