Book 8 - Parliament of Victoria

PUBLIC HOLIDAYS AMENDMENT BILL 2011
1702 COUNCIL Thursday, 2 June 2011
Referring a bill to a legislation committee enables
further consideration of the bill and provides the
opportunity to call witnesses et cetera. More
information can be gathered than is otherwise possible
during the second-reading debate on a bill or even
during the committee stage. Many government bills are
amended by the government. If legitimate concerns are
considered by the committee, the government can
improve its own bill.
Everyone knows that despite governments thinking
their bills are perfect, in most cases we find they are
not. In the last Parliament we saw bills that the
government considered were perfect, so no
amendments were considered, but often those bills
came back to the house 6, 12 or 18 months later. I
predict the same will happen in this parliamentary
session — that legislation will be returned to the
Parliament for further change because it was originally
rushed through without enough consideration. I
anticipate, and I hope it is not the case, that this may be
one such bill, because the provisions have created
confusion in communities, which is what we
foreshadowed could be the case.
I also draw the attention of members to the fact that in
the Victorian Parliament bills are introduced into the
lower house without the knowledge of the opposition
parties, particularly without the knowledge of the
Greens. They pass through the lower house in a matter
of a week or two, come to the upper house and then
debate is put off for a sitting week, which could mean
two or three actual weeks. The bill comes back and, as
a routine, passes through the Parliament. That is not the
case in the Senate, where most bills are considered by a
Senate committee. In other parliaments in Australia
bills go to legislation committees. In the New Zealand
Parliament bills go to select committees, and exposure
drafts of bills are put out.
We need to adopt a culture where there is more time for
legislation to be considered by the community and by
other parties in the Parliament so we make sure we end
up with better legislation which does not have to be
returned to the house. That is the function of a
legislation committee. So far the government has been
resistant to availing itself of that function, but I would
urge it to change that resistance. As I mentioned the last
time I tried to refer a bill to one of the committees, if a
member feels that a bill needs to go to a committee and
the member is supported by other members in the
house, that should be agreed to, especially if it is only
for a short time.
Hon. R. A. DALLA-RIVA (Minister for
Employment and Industrial Relations) — I thank
Ms Pulford for her motion. However, the government
has made it very clear that this bill fulfils an election
commitment. My understanding is that there was
extensive debate on this issue before question time. We
can obviously clarify some issues during the committee
stage. I note that a contingent notice of motion has been
listed on the notice paper to enable Mr Somyurek to
move an amendment and a new clause in the committee
stage. There has been ample discussion on this bill. It is
not a complex bill in the context of some bills that
come before this chamber and, as I said, will fulfil and
complete an election commitment that the coalition
took to the last election. We will not be supporting
Ms Pulford’s motion.
Ms PULFORD (Western Victoria) — Just quickly
in response, it is disappointing that the government’s
approach to motions from the opposition or the Greens
to use our new committee structure as it was intended is
to continually reject them. This is a very narrowly
defined matter. It is a matter of real importance and
significance to albeit only part of the state, but to those
communities that are affected by this legislation it is
very significant. There is some common purpose about
the way in which we would like people to be able to
celebrate public holidays and do so in a way that does
not overly burden organisations. This is exactly the type
of thing the committee could be used for and is in no
way seeking to overly tie up the government’s
legislative program or detract from its stated desire to
fulfil its election commitment. It is to just have a look at
the specific impact of the bill on a number of people
and at a couple of the bill’s provisions.
House divided on motion:
Barber, Mr
Ayes, 19
Pakula, Mr
Broad, Ms Pennicuik, Ms
Darveniza, Ms Pulford, Ms
Eideh, Mr Scheffer, Mr
Elasmar, Mr Somyurek, Mr (Teller)
Hartland, Ms Tarlamis, Mr
Jennings, Mr Tee, Mr (Teller)
Leane, Mr Tierney, Ms
Lenders, Mr
Mikakos, Ms
Viney, Mr
Noes, 21
Atkinson, Mr Koch, Mr
Coote, Mrs Kronberg, Mrs
Crozier, Ms Lovell, Ms
Dalla-Riva, Mr O’Brien, Mr
Davis, Mr D. O’Donohue, Mr
Davis, Mr P. (Teller) Ondarchie, Mr
Drum, Mr Petrovich, Mrs
Elsbury, Mr Peulich, Mrs
Finn, Mr Ramsay, Mr (Teller)
Guy, Mr
Hall, Mr
Motion negatived.
Rich-Phillips, Mr
Sitting suspended 12.56 p.m. until 2.01 p.m.