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Monday, 30 November 1998
Page: 899


Senator MARGETTS (4:49 PM) —I rise to support the amendment moved by Senator Stott Despoja—that is, amendment No. 6. I agree that there is a growing list of legislation, the majority of which is being handled by delegated legislation—that is, there is no real means of parliamentary scrutiny. The Senate has the chance of an all-or-nothing approach. I guess we are well aware of that, having been in a public hearing this morning where the very same thing is happening in relation to the ARPANSA proposed legislation. We have seen it happen in this chamber with child-care legislation. We have seen it happen with the common youth allowance. We have seen it happen with a number of major and important pieces of legislation—that the guts of the legislation is actually coming through by way of unaccountable delegated legislation. That is not a good sign. It means that the government and its departments are gradually looking for ways of hiding from parliamentary scrutiny—and in that sense hiding from public scrutiny. I will be supporting the amendment as moved.