Wednesday, 16 August 2023

Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee

Annual Review 2021 and 2022: Statutory Rules and Legislative Instruments

Lauren KATHAGE (Yan Yean) (10:16): I rise to speak on the Annual Review 2021 and 2022: Statutory Rules and Legislative Instruments report of the Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee. In doing so, I would like to make a general observation, if I may, that the length, detail and depth of this report I think reflect very well on the members of the committee and indeed of the secretariat who support that committee. I note that the former chair, the member for Greenvale, in his introduction to the report especially thanks the secretariat, including Ms Helen Mason, Katie Helme, Simon Dinsbergs, Sonya Caruana and Professor Jeremy Gans, so I join him in that.

This is a report of the regulation review subcommittee. As well as being formerly chaired by the member for Greenvale – and on the new chair, we have seen reports this morning that local newspapers have narrowed it down to three, so we will see how accurate they are in that – other members of the subcommittee are members for the Southern Metropolitan Region, South-Eastern Metropolitan and Northern Metropolitan and the member for Tarneit.

I can see that in their work, it seems to me, if it is dramatic, you are doing it wrong, because the work of this subcommittee is really focused on the details of statutory rules and legislative instruments and ensuring that they are scrutinised with a technical lens to make sure that they are in compliance with the existing acts and other instruments that we have in Victoria. In some ways this focus on the smaller details – the smaller repairs, the checking and the fixing – is a little bit like what our body does when it is asleep, the way it repairs the tiny cells and scans the body for problems with proteins. I think this subcommittee performs a similar function, and perhaps that is why the work of this committee puts so many people to sleep – with apologies to the member for Greenvale.

What is so important about this? It might be a bit boring for some, but really the devil is in the detail; we know that. One of the most important things that this subcommittee does is ensure that statutory rules do not unduly trespass on the rights and freedoms of Victorians and that they comply with the practical and procedural requirements of the Subordinate Legislation Act 1994. As part of that act, they need to make sure that the rights and liberties of the person are not unduly dependent on administrative rather than judicial decisions, and they also need to ensure that they are not incompatible with the human rights set out in the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006.

Victoria was the first state to adopt a human rights charter, and that was I believe under the leadership of Premier Bracks. As with so many things, Victoria was the first state to do this. We might still be the only state – perhaps the ACT has something – but the list of things that Victoria was first to do in Australia seems endless. This human rights charter is one of those. At the time the Victorian Attorney-General Rob Hulls said:

For the first time in our state’s history, key rights are protected in law and in one place. (It) strengthens our democracy and sets out our rights in one accessible place.

This human rights charter also applies to all new policies and programs of the government – as they are developed by departments, we need to make sure that everything we are doing is complying with the human rights charter.

I want to go back to my earlier comments about the soporific qualities of this subcommittee, but you know what? Thank God we have dedicated people such as the secretariat and the subcommittee members going through the fine details of this work, and thank God for the strong foundation of the Victorian human rights charter. The devil is in the detail. We cannot let administrative things rule over us. Our charter ensures that abominations such as robodebt are not able to occur.