Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

We will take that on board. The difficulty is, of course—and I will not give you any undertaking in respect of that—that the problem will always arise where you are effectively using one piece of legislation to indicate that another will have to be delegated legislation under that act. It would then have to be operated to provide that prescription. It is getting to the point of being almost a Henry VIII clause—although perhaps there are other ways we could describe it. I said in my opening remarks that Safe Work Australia will be prescribed as an agency under the Financial Management and Accountability Act 1997, and those words are plain. If there are shortcomings in the description in an earlier explanatory memorandum or during a second reading speech then the advisers on my left might want to take that into account.

The legislation does, of course, refer to the CEO’s functions under that particular legislation. Part 7 of the bill, referring to the Safe Work Australia special account, says that the account is ‘a special account for the purpose of the Financial Management and Accountability Act’. So in this particular bill it is mentioned, but we will certainly take on board the issue of a more explicit statement.

Question agreed to.

Bill, as amended, agreed to.

Safe Work Australia (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2008

Bill—by leave—taken as a whole.

Safe Work Australia Bill 2008 reported with amendments; Safe Work Australia (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2008 reported without amendments; report adopted.