Shirley Ken: Hazardous Substances and New Organisms (Transitional Provisions and Controls) Amendment Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee  
Shirley Ken: Hazardous Substances and New Organisms (Transitional Provisions and Controls) Amendment Bill — Instruction to Committee In Committee  
[Volume:616;Page:11755] 
Hon KEN SHIRLEY (Deputy Leader—ACT) 
: 
 The ACT party will also be supporting this legislation with some trepidation I might add. There are many aspects of the hazardous substances and new organisms legislation that we do not agree with but they are more detailed. What we see in this bill is a slight trend towards an attempt to reduce some of the horrendous compliance costs many of them unnecessary that are built into the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act. 
What I was particularly concerned about however was to learn from the chairman of the Education and Science Committee about the appalling process he had to endure with the indecent haste and time constraints that this Labour Government as executive has put on that committee. This is important legislation and what I am really flagging is an issue that is becoming too common. Many select committees are now finding that they have an unreasonable time constraint put on them. There is not adequate time for public submission. The select committee process is important and I put it to this Committee that it is being abused in a very arrogant way by this Government which is trying to ram through legislation with indecent haste. It is happening far too frequently and it certainly is of great concern to me to hear the concerns of the chairman of the select committee Brian Donnelly with regard to this legislation. 
The bill covers a wide range of substances as has already been mentioned—some 72000. That is an enormous range of substances and as has already been pointed out it includes explosives corrosives oxidising agents reducing agents caustic agents and acidic agents—the works. Just about every aspect of industry and business has to use some such substance in its processes. But some of the aspects of the bill that it seems are an attempt to minimise some of the costs to business and streamline it are welcome. In particular the delegation of powers from the Environmental Risk Management Authority to local control I think is important. There will be less centralised control. We cannot expect the central body of the Environmental Risk Management Authority to be doing all the work on the ground. The delegation of those powers is a trend in the right direction as provided for by this bill. 
I understand too that the authority may vary the default controls to allow the choosing of the most cost-effective option. That is certainly an important improvement because we should always leave discretion with business and with those on the ground and at the coalface as it were to choose the most cost-effective option. They will know what best suits their particular application of the generic legislation. I also note that there is the issue of the non-hazardous compressed gaseous substances. Certainly there are many substances that in their natural state are not hazardous but if compressed can become highly hazardous. This bill as I understand it attempts to close that loophole of dangerous substances in their gaseous forms escaping the loop of the hazardous substances and new organisms legislation. That is all I would like to comment on at this stage. As I indicated the ACT party will be supporting this legislation but we believe that an awful lot more could have been done to streamline it.