Wednesday, 17 May 2023

Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee

Report on the Statute Law Amendment Bill 2022

Dylan WIGHT (Tarneit) (10:19): It gives me great pleasure this morning to rise and contribute on the various reports that are tabled by the various committees. Committee work in this place –

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Which report is the member speaking on?

Dylan WIGHT: Sorry. I am speaking on the Report on the Statute Law Amendment Bill 2022.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Thank you.

Dylan WIGHT: It gives me great pleasure to rise to speak on the Report on the Statute Law Amendment Bill 2022. I sit on more than one committee. I sit on the Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee, which produced this report on the Statute Law Amendment Bill 2022, and I also have the pleasure of sitting on the Economy and Infrastructure Committee, which will be undertaking some incredibly important work later this year and holding public hearings into the changing behaviour of Victoria’s road users.

With that, I would like to thank everybody that contributes to those committees for the power of work that is done in producing reports of this nature. Obviously I would like to thank the secretariat, the responsible ministers and indeed the members that are involved in these committees. And I would particularly like to thank my Labor colleagues on SARC, the Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee. It is a committee that is chaired wonderfully, I must say, by a new member in this place, the member for Greenvale Iwan Walters, somebody that has come into this place and has contributed, I think, probably as well as we will ever see a new member in this place contribute. I would also like to thank the member for Broadmeadows Kathleen Matthews-Ward and also two members in the other place, Sonja Terpstra and Sheena Watt. As I said, I am on this committee as well, so I should probably give myself a shout-out too. I think I do pretty good work on this committee, if I do say so myself. It is incredibly appropriate, as I did earlier, to really thank the staff on this committee that bring it all together. Without the help of Ms Helen Mason, who is the executive officer –

A member: Hear, hear!

Dylan WIGHT: Absolutely. She has got a long history on SARC, Helen. She has done fantastic work on that committee now over a number of terms, and she continues to do so for us right now. Without the help of Helen, I can tell you, that particular committee would not get as much done as it does. Also I would like to thank Ms Katie Helme, who is the senior research officer and who also does absolutely amazing work. I can say from experience sometimes she has to answer some of the more inane questions that I have heard in committee work. I also thank Mr Simon Dinsbergs, who is the business support officer and who does absolutely fantastic work; Mr Sonya Caruana, who is the office manager; and also Professor Jeremy Gans, who is able to provide the committee with fantastic insight into human rights law and the human rights charter and make sure that all of the decisions the committee is making are in line with that charter, because that is obviously something that is of the utmost importance to the Andrews Labor government.

This report, which has now been tabled and which people can read, comes with a whole host of recommendations, and I encourage those in the chamber to go through it.