Tuesday, 3 February 2026

 Rachel PAYNE (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (19:52): Pursuant to section 35 of the Parliamentary Committees Act 2003, I table Alert Digest No. 1 of 2026, including appendices, from the Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee. I move:

That the report be published.

Motion agreed to.

Rachel PAYNE: I move:

That the Council take note of the report.

 Gaelle BROAD (Northern Victoria) (19:53): As a member of the Scrutiny of Acts and Regulations Committee I would like to make a brief comment about that because it is disappointing I guess to note in appendix 4 of that report – and this is the first report of the year – that there were some regulations put forward, and when I looked into the regulations that were put forward I was quite surprised that the Minister for Treaty and First Peoples had issued an exemption to the regulatory impact statement, and that is in relation to the Traditional Owner Settlement (Negotiation Costs) Regulations 2025. I will just quote from the minister’s correspondence, which has been tabled:

A Regulatory Impact Statement for these regulations has not been prepared. As the Minister responsible for the administration of the Traditional Owner Settlement Act 2010, I have issued an Exemption Certificate under section 8 of the Subordinate Legislation Act 1994 …

When you further look into it, the minister said that, in her opinion:

… the proposed statutory rule would not impose a significant economic or social burden on a sector of the public.

She referred also to:

Following a consultation process on the proposed statutory rule …

When you look at the groups that have been consulted, they are actually all traditional owners. I do raise concerns about that because this applies to the land use activity agreement, and I have raised concerns in this chamber about the impact that that agreement and the costs associated with it are having on families, on local councils and on housing developments. The purpose of a regulatory impact statement is to ensure that all relevant information, including economic and social impacts, is considered, so I was disappointed that that has been put to the side, but I guess I am not surprised that under this government we continue to see a lack of proper consultation, a lack of parliamentary scrutiny and a lack of transparency, and I wish that it had been different.

Motion agreed to.