Page 1908 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 14 May 2013
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professional privilege, territory liability to compensate, and the depth of details in the explanatory statement. The minister has responded to all of these recommendations, and the opposition is of the view that these concerns have been addressed.
I would, though, like to draw attention to the committee’s comments on the delegation of legislative power to another jurisdiction. Clause 7 of the bill establishes that the appendix set out in the Community Housing Providers National Law, as passed by New South Wales in 2012, applies to the territory as law. In turn, the bill requires that any amendment to the national law by New South Wales must be presented to the Legislative Assembly no later than six sitting days after it is passed and may be disallowed.
The committee has suggested that an amendment by the New South Wales parliament to the national law should not be merely disallowable, but come into force only after a positive resolution of the Assembly. While we are supporting this bill today, we will be monitoring this process closely to ensure that there are no adverse impacts on the community housing sector in the ACT as a result of any New South Wales amendments.
In considering this bill we did seek feedback from the community housing sector. Discussions, particularly with Havelock House and ACT Shelter, have indicated that the sector welcomes these reforms and that there has been significant consultation throughout the development of the bill.
Before I finish, I would like to thank the minister’s office for circulating the response to the scrutiny of bills committee before the debate today and also for providing my office with a briefing on the bill. As foreshadowed, the opposition will be supporting this bill.
MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo—Minister for Territory and Municipal Services, Minister for Corrections, Minister for Housing, Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs and Minister for Ageing) (10.17), in reply: I presented the Community Housing Providers National Law (ACT) Bill 2013 on 11 April and today I present a revised explanatory statement to the bill following feedback from the scrutiny committee.
This bill will repeal part 4A of the Housing Assistance Act 2007 and apply the Community Housing Providers National Law. Today I would like to talk about the need for this legislation, what it means for our social housing stock and the regulations this bill includes that will provide for a thorough monitoring of the community housing sector.
I would also like to note that nationally consistent legislation requires each jurisdiction to balance a need to account for the local context and need for local oversight with the achievement of universal implementation. This brings additional complexity to the task of introducing this legislation.
Strengthening and growing the community housing sector is a clear objective of our affordable housing action plan. It is also an explicit objective of the reforms agreed to
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