Page 5691 - Week 13 - Thursday, 18 November 2010
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MR SPEAKER: No, thank you, Mr Smyth. Please resume your seat. Do we know if Mrs Dunne is far away?
Mr Smyth: No, I believe she is coming back straightaway with her documents, Mr Speaker.
MR SPEAKER: Thank you. In order to prevent this item from dropping off the agenda, the Assembly will be suspended for a number of minutes. We will resume with the short ringing of the bells.
At 2.54, the sitting was suspended until the ringing of the bells.
The bells having been rung, Mr Speaker resumed the chair at 2.55.
MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (2.55): I do apologise to the Assembly. I had not joined the dots between Ms Porter’s absence and the fact that the MPI would lapse. I apologise for that. I move:
That Subordinate Law SL2010-40, Liquor Regulations 2010, be amended as set out in the following schedule:
[See schedule A at page 5749].
Like the Liquor Act, the Liquor Regulations is a document that, in a number of areas, fails the ACT hospitality and liquor industry. Once again it seeks to place a one-size-fits-all approach on the industry, levying a top-down treatment to everyone in the industry.
In the course of the debacle that has been the so-called liquor reforms of this ACT Labor government, I have received many representations from a variety of people. Those have come from off-licences big and small, on-licences big and small, not-for-profit permit holders, industry representative groups and individuals. Out of all of this has emerged a wide range of issues that have made me wonder to what extent has this ACT Labor government actually talked with the industry in the context of this so-called reform agenda.
No doubt the government will say that consultation has been extensive but the overwhelming evidence presented to me is that this consultation had not been with business operators, especially small business operators. The most glaring of all, of course, is the licensing fee schedule where there was no consultation—just like it or lump it.
But what about the Liquor Regulations? Certainly there have been significant concerns expressed to me about the lack of consultation and certainly an inability to listen to those concerns. Again, we have got a like-it-or-lump-it approach. So once again it is left to the Canberra Liberals to listen to the concerns of industry.
It is only the Canberra Liberals who have welcomed the input of industry. It is only the Canberra Liberals who have been champions for that industry and it is only the
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