Tuesday, 20 September 2022
Committees
Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee
Committees
Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee
Alert Digest No. 13
Mr GEPP (Northern Victoria) (09:48): Pursuant to section 35 of the Parliamentary Committees Act 2003, I lay on the table Alert Digest No. 13 of 2022 from the Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee, including appendices. I move:
That the report be published.
Motion agreed to.
Mr GEPP: I move:
That the Council take note of the report.
In doing so—gee, you can tell this is a swan song, can’t you?—can I place on record my thanks to the people who assist the Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee (SARC) every week. We are very, very blessed in this state to have some of the highest quality public servants that I have ever met, and I have worked with public servants for most of my adult life at both the federal level and a state level. We lack for nothing in this state; we have got some excellent public servants. From time to time we use them as a bit of a political football, and we should not, because they are there to do something very, very noble, and that is to assist with the democratic running of our state—and they do it with fearless and frank advice.
In the case of SARC we have been very, very well served by the executive officer, Helen Mason; our two research officers, Katie Helme and Lauren Cook; and our two administrative staff, Sonya Caruana and Simon Dinsbergs. They have all been very much complemented by our human rights charter expert, Professor Jeremy Gans. Can I say, from all of the committee, that we are very, very grateful for the work that they have done—very challenging work over the last four years. I think it was the SARC that was probably put to the test more than any other committee in terms of the way it operated through the pandemic, and Helen and her team have done a marvellous job throughout. I just want to—
Mr GEPP: I do not know why people think that they should interject on something like this. But anyway, why should today be any different, I guess? Just a few stats—
The PRESIDENT: Order! Dr Cumming, you walk in without bowing, without acknowledging anything, you keep talking till you get there and then you interrupt, you move out and you come back. Please respect the house.
Mr GEPP: Thank you, President. Just to underline some of the work that we have done: the committee has produced over the course of the 59th Parliament 58 alert digests. We have dealt with 257 bills across 23 acts, and we also of course have a regulations review subcommittee that assists the SARC with dealing with the regulations that are made arising out of pieces of legislation, and that committee has met over 30 times. It has dealt with 698 regulations and a further 179 legislative instruments over the course of the four years.
I am really pleased and proud to have been the chair of the committee, and again I place on record my thanks to Helen and her team, who have just done a wonderful job. Can I also thank the members of the committee over the journey. I will not go through and name them all, because there has been a little bit of movement, but in this chamber we have had a number of people that have participated. I also thank the deputy chair of the committee, Mr Burgess, from the other place, who has supported me. With those words I thank the house and I thank the committee.
Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) (09:53): I would just like to make a couple of points and to concur with the chair of the Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee, Mr Gepp, on the incredible work of the team, lead very well by Helen Mason, and the insight that Jeremy Gans has been able to give us from a human rights aspect. I have to say, having been a member of SARC for the whole term, I highly recommend it. I did not think I would say that at the beginning of this term, but as an independent it gives you a wonderful insight into legislation that you might not be able to garner using the limited resources that your offices have.
I would particularly like to note my knowledge of the King Henry VIII clause, which was something quite foreign to me until my time on SARC. It was quite an extraordinary time. There was quite an extraordinary number of pieces of legislation that we went through—some controversial, many very interesting—and I would like to commend Mr Gepp for leading and chairing the committee extremely well.
Mr DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan—Leader of the Opposition) (09:55):(By leave) I do want to say on the matter of the Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee over this term that whilst deeply respecting the work of the committee members and indeed deeply respecting particularly the work of the committee staff, I do not believe that the committee has actually dealt with many of the difficult issues that should have been dealt with, especially through the pandemic period. I do not believe that the committee has stood up strongly enough for the rights of individuals where rights were being trampled at an unprecedented rate. There are legislative deficiencies, to be fair to SARC, that make it more difficult, and some of those should be dealt with. There is also actually a failure of courage by a number of members of SARC to hold the government to account where there were gross violations of human rights. SARC is a committee ripe for reform.
Motion agreed to.