Thursday, 20 September 2018

Mr PESUTTO: Could I add my comments — with indulgence — just to extend my thanks to the Speaker, to all of the parliamentary staff and to all of the electorate office and ministerial staff, who work harder than they should have to to serve us as MPs and ministers in the government. They are often the forgotten ones. To those members of this house who leave with our warmest wishes, I offer my best wishes for their futures. I hope that the next chapter of their careers and lives is as enjoyable as I hope their time in this Parliament has been.

As for clause 1 of this bill, following the report by the Honourable Frank Vincent, which the government commissioned back in November 2016, the bill’s purpose principally is to, amongst other things of course, establish the primacy of the principle of open justice, and I would just ask the Attorney-General how, in practice, does he see that principle being implemented by the courts?

Mr PAKULA: I thank the member for Hawthorn for his question. It appears that, up to the adjournment, I may have the last word of the 58th Parliament. I will do two things in the 90 seconds I have. First of all, I will respond to the member for Hawthorn’s question directly by saying there were a number of recommendations in the Vincent review, not all of which are being implemented by this bill, and that is really a function of complexity. Those that are less complex have been instituted by virtue of this bill, and it is the intention of the government, should we get the opportunity to govern again, to have not just this bill recommitted but the introduction of a second bill that will deal with some of the more technically difficult recommendations that former Justice Vincent put in place.

The second thing I want to say for the record is to express my thanks to the member for Hawthorn for the manner in which he has conducted himself as my shadow minister. We have disagreed about many things, vigorously and at high volume, over the last four years, but I say to the member for Hawthorn that I do not expect that he will lose his preselection on the basis of being described as courteous and reasonable. I have thought him to be mainly courteous and reasonable over the last four years. We have said some nasty things about one another, but I do not think we mean it.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Ms Kilkenny): The time set down for consideration of items on the government business program has arrived, and I am required to interrupt business.

Clause agreed to; clauses 2 to 16 agreed to.

Bill agreed to without amendment.