Page 5658 - Week 15 - Thursday, 10 December 2009
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
The amendment maintains a high threshold for the protection of reporter confidentiality. This position is maintained to reflect community expectations regarding protection of children and young people and acknowledging the role of reporters of child abuse and neglect in this process.
The last amendment proposed is a technical amendment to section 875 of the act to ensure clarity of interpretation when the information secrecy and sharing provisions of the act interact with other acts. It is the intention of the act that its application is given precedence over other legislation that might otherwise allow or restrict information exchange. The amendment ensures that the restrictions contained in this act continue to apply to an information holder who is performing a function under another law that does not have a purpose under this act.
Mr Speaker, I table the Children and Young People Amendment Bill 2009 (No 2) for consideration by members.
Debate (on motion by Mrs Dunne) adjourned to the next sitting.
Declaration of members’ interests
MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo) (11.22), by leave: I move:
That continuing resolution 6 be amended as follows:
Omit paragraphs (2) and (3), substitute the following paragraphs:
“(2) under the general direction of the Speaker, the Clerk shall store the declarations of private interests made by each Member and arrange for the declarations to be placed on the Legislative Assembly website on the internet. Any alterations shall be placed on the Legislative Assembly website on the internet every six months. When a Member vacates his or her seat and is not re-elected at the next general election for the Assembly, the Clerk shall destroy all declarations made by that Member in his/her custody and remove those declarations from the Legislative Assembly website on the internet;
(3) any declaration stored by the Clerk be made available for perusal to any person on request; and”.
I am moving this motion today in order to update the Assembly’s procedures for transparency for making available the register of members’ interests. This move will bring us into line with other parliaments across Australia who have all of their declarations tabled on the floor on a regular basis. As our system currently stands, members are asked to update their registers when they change, and they are stored with the Clerk and are available for access. However, the more regular practice across Australian parliaments is to table them, usually annually.
Some other Australian parliaments are also considering placing the declarations on the internet. If this motion is passed today, the ACT will be amongst the first to do so. This change, along with placing other information on MLAs’ entitlements on the
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video