Page 2372 - Week 07 - Thursday, 4 August 2016

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I would like to take this opportunity to thank the business and community reference groups for their involvement and input and, in particular, to thank the officials, who have been working very well with both these reference groups and over a long period of time to deliver the significant legislative reform that the Assembly has provided support for today, which I am grateful for. I thank members for their support.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

Bill agreed to in principle.

Detail stage

Bill, by leave, taken as a whole.

MS FITZHARRIS (Molonglo—Minister for Higher Education, Training and Research, Minister for Transport Canberra and City Services and Assistant Minister for Health) (5.32): Pursuant to standing order 182A(b), I seek leave to move amendments to this bill which are minor and technical in nature together.

Leave granted.

MS FITZHARRIS: I move amendments Nos 1 to 4 circulated in my name [see schedule 4 at pages 2389-2390] and table a supplementary explanatory statement to the government amendments.

The government will be making minor and technical amendments to the bill today in order to clarify the role of the waste regulator and the ability to make certain recommendations.

Following the public release of a discussion draft of this bill in October 2015, extensive consultation with industry agencies and the broader community resulted in a number of significant changes to the draft bill. A prominent issue in discussions was the need to ensure that the legislation is clear in applying the regulatory framework—that is, the licensing, registration and reporting requirements—only to a waste management business. In the final bill, the definitions of “waste activity” and “waste management business” have been refined so that members of the broader community are not covered by provisions intended to apply only to the waste management industry.

It was also important that the bill be drafted as simply as possible. This included a desire to ensure that the functions of the waste manager are expressed broadly, not attempting to describe every strategic and administrative responsibility of the office.

The combined effect of those amendments has affected the power to make regulations relating to the generation, containment and collection of waste in the general community. The Parliamentary Counsel’s Office advises that it would be prudent to amend the bill now to make the regulation making power clearer.


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