Senator BOLKUS (11:08 AM) —The opposition do not support amendments Nos 1 and 2 on sheet EB251, and we do have concerns with House amendment No. 8. It has been a very important objective, particularly of the community groups involved in this debate, to ensure a public process for the trust and to ensure public meetings. We have recognised in our amendments that that principle should be embodied in the legislation. We have also recognised that from time to time there may be a need to have a private meeting. But, as was passed by the Senate before Christmas and as we are moving now in our amendments, we believe that the interests of transparency are met by including the reasons for the private meeting in the minutes of the public meeting.

In the proposal adopted by the Senate before Christmas, the proposal that we are pursuing, we want to maximise the number of public meetings, put a real stop on the number of private meetings and have some transparency with respect to them. The government's proposal does completely the opposite. If you look at amendments Nos 1 and 2 on sheet EB251, you basically have the government saying that at least one meeting every six months will be open to the public. But, as for the rest of the meetings, there is no such obligation at all. It throws the balance around the other way. The government's proposal will basically give the yellow light to a trust running in private as opposed to a trust running in public. For that basic reason, we do not support amendments Nos 1 and 2 on sheet EB251, as proposed by the government.