THE PRESS MONDAY, AUGUST 21, 1989. Government, open and shut

Press, 21 August 1989, Page 12

THE PRESS MONDAY, AUGUST 21, 1989. Government, open and shut

A few hours before the Budget was presented to Parliament on July 27, the Minister of Education, Mr Lange, introduced the Education Bill to the House. This is one of the substantial, far-reaching measures this year that sets the education system on its head. It deals with the rights to education, enrolment, attendance, a new Parent Advocacy Council, the control and management of schools through charter/ and trust boards, and the registration of teachers. This is an immensely important piece of legislation and, though it has been preceded by a lot of Government statements and public discussion, the bill warrants the closest scrutiny by those whom it affects as well as by Parliament. Copies of the bill were available to the public through Government Bookshops within a few days. Today, barely three weeks later, any public submissions on the bill must be lodged with the parliamentary committee that will examine the bill before it has to be enacted by the end of September. The speed at which all this has to be done brings no credit to the Government. The whole change in administering education has been conducted at break-neck pace and with far too little regard for the fact that most of those who have to absorb the revolution, to plan for the new system, budget for it and make it work are already fully engaged in running the present system or have to make a living at other jobs. This has been typical of much change wrought by the Lange Government over the last five years. One excuse for taking things at a gallop is that, if changes are made at a trot, the resistance forces will mobilise themselves and the big thrusts will be upset by minor skirmishes that steer the campaign into a bog of details and diversions. For all that, attention to detail and principle is no bad thing in making law. When the new Prime Minister, Mr Palmer, entered Parliament 10 years ago, he spoke enthusiastically about reforming parliamentary processes, particularly to ensure the proper consideration of laws and to ensure parliamentary, not merely executive, control over expenditure and bureaucracy. The Labour Party, then the Opposition, held that bills should be before the House for not less than three months, and Mr Palmer was vigorously advocating greater accountability by departments of State, many of which have since been hived off as much less accountable corporations. At least Mr Palmer has been pretty consistent in his own views on such matters and his leadership may restore some of the steadier, sterner and slower controls and consideration of Parliament’s business. The Government proposes to dispose of the Government Printing Office, so that it will cease to be a department of the Public Service and so that the publication of Government and parliamentary documents will become a matter of private contracting. One of Mr Palmer’s last pieces of legislation as Attorney-General is his Statutory Publications Bill. This was introduced partly to deal with the disposal of the printing office, though it deals generally with facilitating the public’s right to know what the law is, to be aware of regulations, and to enable Parliament itself better to supervise

regulations made by the Government. The bill would formalise some matters that are now taken for granted.

One curious omission from the bill is a statutory assurance that bills will be printed and made available to the public while Parliament is considering them. The bill requires the Attorney-General to make known in The Gazette where acts of Parliament, bills and regulations shall be available to the public and it requires that copies of acts shall be on sale. At present, parliamentary practice requires that all bills presented to the House shall be printed for members. Nowhere in the Statutory Publications Bill or, it seems, anywhere else is there any assurance that a supply of these bills shall be printed for the public as well. There should be; and a requirement for prompt and economical publication should be part of the law.

The departure from having a Government Printing Office reeks of more cost to the public for the right, not a privilege, to know the law. The openness of Government should not become more expensive for the consumer. Much of the effect of the bill relies upon the publication of The Gazette, the weekly publication made under the authority of the Government that announces mostly the decisions, appointments, and orders made by the Executive. It is proposed, for example, that the making of regulations be notified in The Gazette. The habit of producing The Gazette should surely be reinforced here by clear statutory requirements on its existence, frequency, and, like bills, acts and regulations, its distribution.

One of the most important innovations in Mr Palmer’s bill is that no-one shall be liable for an offence against a regulation until a regulation has been printed and put on sale or otherwise “reasonably been made known to the public or those likely to be affected by it." This is good law and common sense, and requires swift action in the event of urgently needed regulations. Parliament will be given a clear and automatic opportunity to disallow regulations. This depends upon the sitting of the House; but at least it guarantees that all regulations are exposed at the first opportunity to parliamentary scrutiny and to the same possibilities of rejection or amendment as are bills, which are often less sweeping or intrusive than the regulations made under their authority.

This is good legislation and can be welcomed. Mr Lange, now the AttorneyGeneral, will inherit from Mr Palmer the interesting task of seeing it through and supervising its application. Perhaps he will be persuaded that it is not necessary to dispose of the Government Printing Office. Perhaps, as a Minister acting outside the Cabinet, he can be convinced that it is in the public interest, and in the interests of economy, control, and responsiveness to the needs of Parliament, that the Government and the House should retain the printing office.

From his position outside the Executive Council, and with the support of Mr Palmer within it, Mr Lange may be able to do more than before to steady the rush of change.