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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-03-24 Daily Xml
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Local Government (Public Health Emergency) Amendment Bill

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading (resumed on motion).

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (16:21): I indicate that I am the lead speaker for the opposition on the bill and that we will be supporting it. This bill passed through the other place this morning following a process of consultation and negotiation with my colleague the shadow minister for local government, the member for Light. This bill has been introduced at short notice into the South Australian parliament today in order to ensure that South Australian councils can continue to operate effectively throughout the coronavirus public health emergency.

The continually developing and changing regulations and guidelines regarding social isolation are of course affecting councils' operations, and these will likely include requirements set out in the Local Government Act 1999. Appropriately, the government has introduced this bill to provide the flexibility needed for councils to safely respond to this crisis without breaching their legislative requirements.

This bill will allow the Minister for Local Government to vary or suspend at short notice any provision within the act by notice in the Gazette in order to facilitate safe council operations amidst the coronavirus public health emergency.

This bill confers broad and flexible powers on the Minister for Local Government, but there are safeguards put in place to guard against potential abuse. Many of those safeguards were negotiated by my colleague in the other place the member for Light. These safeguards include the ability of either house of parliament to disallow any gazettal notice provided through the provisions of this bill and also a sunset clause and reporting requirement on the operation of this bill to occur by 31 December 2021. With these short remarks, I commend the bill to the council.

The Hon. M.C. PARNELL (16:23): The Greens will also be supporting this bill. The bill provides broad powers to the minister to issue a notice to suspend or vary the Local Government Act, with the exception of any limitation or restrictions on the ability of councils to impose rates and charges; in other words, this is not rate capping by stealth. The Greens believe the powers are necessary. It is uncertain at this stage how long they will be needed. Certainly, the health emergency, having now been declared, is unlikely to be lifted in the next period of months, yet the work of local government and indeed state government must continue.

As the member previously mentioned, an important safeguard in this bill is that these notices, these executive decisions that are published in the Government Gazette, will be treated as disallowable instruments. If we as a parliament think that the government has exceeded its power unnecessarily, suspended any portion of the act, then of course we could move disallowance.

Having said that, I might just mention at this stage that I do not expect this to be the last of the COVID-19 bills that we see. Certainly, we have only had two so far. We have had the powers of public health officials and the South Australian Public Health Act and we now have this local government one. The bill that we have previously considered in relation to the Coroner's powers, whilst related, was not specifically directed to COVID-19, but there are so many other areas of regulation that will need to be revisited in light of this public emergency, so I expect we will see more bills coming.

I also note in passing that if safeguards such as the ability to disallow such notices are to mean anything, parliament must continue to sit. I do note the decision of the New South Wales parliament to suspend for a period of months, which I think makes a mockery of all the checks and balances. I appreciate theirs is a bigger parliament. I appreciate that New South Wales has been harder hit by the COVID-19 virus, but certainly from a Greens' perspective we will do everything we can to cooperate with all the public health warnings so that we can keep this workplace going because I think these checks and balances are important.

The other reason we are keen to support this bill is that it has the support of the Local Government Association. I received an email from them today basically saying, 'The LGA has been involved in the development of this bill and we support the passage of this legislation as an urgent measure to ensure that councils can continue to operate effectively and safely during the public health emergency.' They urged the Greens to support the bill, which is what we are doing now.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Minister for Trade and Investment) (16:26): I thank the honourable members for their brief remarks. I am very pleased to hear that they will be supporting the bill. Can I also thank the LGA for their support; I think it is important. As members have indicated, this is a COVID-19 bill and it is here because of it. I think the government and the people of South Australia appreciate that at times like this all parties tend to come together and support the necessary changes to legislation, and clearly this is when we have the capacity for council meetings to be held electronically. We have not had that in the past, the act did not allow it.

I think this bill spells out that ministers can suspend and vary any provisions under a public health emergency, which then gives the minister flexibility. The amendments that have been made, to make them disallowable, also have a sunset clause and I think they are important. In fact, the sunset clause is 31 December 2021. I am sure we all hope that the coronavirus is well and truly behind us in December 2021. Nonetheless, there will be a review process prior to that. I thank all members for their contribution and consideration.

Bill read a second time.

Committee Stage

Bill taken through committee without amendment.

Third Reading

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Minister for Trade and Investment) (16:30): I move:

That this bill be now read a third time.

Bill read a third time and passed.


At 16:30 the council adjourned until Wednesday 25 March 2020 at 14:15.

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