Brendan Ryan (Labour)

I made a reasonable half compliment to prove I am in reasonable humour. I will not pretend I am an authority on the Bill because I am substituting for Senator Tuffy. The purpose of the amendment is to delete section 33(2). I invite Senators to try to figure out the meaning or purpose of the subsection. This is the reason we propose its deletion. It reads:

Subsection (1) is not to be taken to confer on any person a right in law that the person would not otherwise have to require a local authority to take any steps referred to in that subsection or to seek damages for a local authority's failure to take such steps.

The lawyer who advises the Labour Party on these matters, while not quite as eminent as the Minister, has pointed out that this subsection is a virtually meaningless collection of words. I will listen to the Minister's response with interest but meaningless paragraphs have no function in legislation. This subsection does not appear to have meaning.