Wednesday, 16 August 2023

Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee

Annual Review 2021 and 2022: Statutory Rules and Legislative Instruments

Iwan WALTERS (Greenvale) (10:26): It is a pleasure to rise and contribute to this important debate on committee reports this morning. I will be making my contribution on the annual review 2021–22 statutory rules and legislative instruments, which is a magnificent piece of work undertaken by the regulations review subcommittee of the Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee. I do this in the slightly unusual position of having just resigned from that committee. But I do not wish the house to construe that resignation as in any way disparaging the fine work of the committee. In fact I will check the record later, but I think that the member for Yan Yean may have implied, unfortunately, that the work of this committee has a soporific effect upon her. If that is the case, then it is important to note in the house that the work of the committee has been most grievously misrepresented. There is a longstanding and well-accepted tradition in Westminster-derived democracies of the executive discharging functions which are subordinated to it. It is entirely right and proper, and really important, that the executive is held to account and scrutinised by a body like SARC and like the regulations review subcommittee, because while it might not be primary legislation, regulations which are enacted as subordinate legislation by ministers have an impact upon the lives of Victorians in ways which might be actually comparable to primary legislation. So this is important work, and it is a shame in a sense that it might be hidden from view a little bit too well so that it takes a report of this substance to showcase the important work that the regulations review subcommittee has undertaken over the last two years.

Just to give the house some examples, this encompasses 181 statutory rules in the 2021 series, 137 statutory rules in the 2022 series, 45 separate legislative instruments published in the Government Gazette during 2021 and 44 legislative instruments published in the Government Gazette during 2022. The reason I mention those numbers is it gives some insight into the volume of work that has been undertaken by the secretariat of the regulations review subcommittee in particular.

As chair of that committee, it has been my immense pleasure to work with Katie Helme, who has been primarily responsible for the curation of this really substantive report and in the analysis of every single piece of subordinate legislation that is made by ministers, or the executive, in this place. The reason it has been a pleasure to work with Katie and with Sonya Caruana, as the secretariat of that subcommittee, is because their work is incredibly diligent. They are responsive to queries. As chair, they provided me with immense support. I would like to thank them very sincerely for the work that they have done, which is reflected in my foreword, and I thank the member for Yan Yean for drawing the house’s attention to that. I thank them for the magnificent work that they have done.

I would like to thank as well colleagues Mr Wight, the member for Tarneit; Ms Payne and Ms Watt in the other place; and deputy chair David Davis, a member for Southern Metropolitan Region. It is a committee that is conducted I think in the best traditions of a committee system where there is a multipartite representation and the committee seeks to work collegially to ensure that the scrutiny of the legislature is brought to bear in a way that is constructive on the executive. An example was actually touched upon by my colleague the member for Bellarine just before in relation to the declaration of the Bellarine Peninsula as a distinctive area and landscape. The committee wrote to the minister just seeking some clarification about some of the processes of that declaration, without which various things would not have been done, such as the tabling of that declaration, enabling the house and indeed the Parliament as a whole to be able to scrutinise that decision-making. I think that is a marvellous thing that has been done. I know the member for Bellarine is very passionate about that. So in the time remaining to me I want to thank the entirety of the SARC secretariat, including Helen Mason, Jeremy Gans, Simon Dinsbergs, Sonya Caruana and all of the colleagues that I have had the pleasure to serve with as a member and chair of SARC, and I wish them well in future.