Senator Gerard Craughwell - speech from 29 Mar 2021

Thank you very much. Minister, thank you for outlining the situation as it is. I would like to acknowledge my colleagues here who are, like me, supportive of the legislation that you are putting through. I want to put it on record I am 100% supportive of what you are trying to do. I do have two issues. The first issue is, if somebody can explain to me, and there are eminent lawyers here in the room, if somebody can explain to me what is the issue. What is the difference between the Minister putting down or accepting the amendment to December 2021 and having to come back to the House between now and December when everything has, as we hope, gone back to normal to repeal that section, or having to come back if things have not improved in July to extend it. What is the difference? It provides certainty to the end of the year for tenants, as far as I am concerned. Now, I really appreciate Senator Ward's input. I know Senator Ward for a long time, and I trust what he says. And he acknowledges there is one section there that causes a bit of a problem, and that would seem to be, unless I am mistaken, Senator Ward, it would be the five kilometre issue may cause a problem at some stage. We do not know that. But certainly what I have here, and I am a layman, I have legal opinions on both sides now. One saying it does not apply, one saying it does. If I were a tenant, I would not be at all happy at this stage. So I would not. But Minister, I am not going to impede the passing of your bill, nor am I going to call any votes on it. But I just wanted to get on record the haste of which the bill was coming through the House, and my belief that it is a lack of respect for this constitutional House here. And the second one is that I still cannot understand why you could not accept December, and if needs be, if everything is going as we hope by July, that you can come in here in July and say, right, we do not need that anymore. We can now cancel it. So try and explain that to me, and I would appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Senator Garvey.