Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / Katie Woolf spoke with NT Law Society President Maria Savvas

Transcript

Katie Woolf spoke with NT Law Society President Maria Savvas · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Throughout the week, we've been speaking about the changes that
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: were introduced in Parliament earlier in the week, which we'll
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: see the scrapping of the Scrutiny Committee. Now joining me
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: on the line to talk more about this is the
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Law Society of the Northern Territory's President, Maria Savas.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: Good morning, Maria, Good morning Katie. How are you good?
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Thank you now, Maria.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Obviously these changes were introduced into Parliament earlier in the week.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: There's been a lot of discussion about how exactly they're
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: going to impact territorians. I know the Society is calling
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: on the Northern Territory government to reconsider its decision and
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: reinstate the committee.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: What are your concerns, well.
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: I think firstly, the first thing certainly have is that
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: this decision was really made without any consultation. The Society
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: certainly wasn't aware that the government was making a decision
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: to dissolve the Legislative Scrutiny Committee. Honestly, we don't come
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: I can't really accept that there's a valid basis for
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: its scrapping, so to speak. You know, whilst we understand
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: that the government wants to get on with the job,
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: there's really no evidence that you know suggests that the
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: existence of these committees really hinder the government's ability to
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: get on with the job or to act more quickly
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: or efficiently. And that said, you know, we're of the
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: view that efficiency really have to give way to fairness,
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: transparency and accountability. So, you know, the society view with
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: respect to you know, the work done of the committee
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: is that you know, it's really we can set it
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: to be vital in any parliamentary system. And I think
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: at a time where these communities trusting politicians and parliamentary
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: politics has you know, significantly declined the screen, the committee
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: provides a real opportunity for the rebuilding of that trust
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: by showing I think the community and the interested stakeholders
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: at Parliament that's willing to listen, I suppose to us,
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: and in particular when dealing with new items of legislation.
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: You know, it's the stakeholder's opportunity to really constructively engage
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: in the legislative reform process. And you know, we feel
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: that taking that opportunity away is really only going to
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: be detrimental in terms of you know, is selling trust
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: in the current government of the day.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: Maria, I guess the thing that I've sort of found
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: throughout the course of the week is is when we've
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: spoken about this, there's been a lot of people listening
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: that probably don't really know if it's going to have
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: much much of an impact on them and their day
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: to day lives. How is it going to impact territorians?
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: Well, well, I think it's the biggest impact is going
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: to be on you know, the legislation itself, in the
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: sense that the community, the non government organization, the legal profession,
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: you know, we don't get to have any input on
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: the proposed new legislation. And I would have thought that
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: when with government introducing laws that are going to impact
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: on the community, surely the community should be given an
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: opportunity to consider that, putting submission to the Scrutiny Committee.
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: Has this scrutiny Committee, you know, in accordance with their
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: terms of reference, prepare a fairly detailed report and then
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: everyone's position is on the record for consideration by the government.
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: Maria, is it really going to have a big impact?
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: I mean, the government said yesterday on the show that
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: ninety percent of the legislation passed throughout the last term
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: of government without changes. After going through the scrutiny committee.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: Does that demonstrate that there's no need for it.
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: No, I don't think it demonstrates that at all. You know,
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: I think that it's about the constructive engagement in the
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: in the process itself that is really important. People want
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: the opportunity to have a say, and they want to
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: feel that they're being heard and that you know, often
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: there are unintended consequences in proposed bills, and often it's
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: the stakeholders that bring that to the attention of the
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: scrutiny committee. So you know, whilst temper cent might not
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: seem like mark, that ten percent could impact on the
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: community in a significant way.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: Look, I find myself even here on this show that
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: sometimes you can have a really strong opinion on something
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: and then somebody else brings to the for some information
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: that you may not have thought about before, and it
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: does make you think a little bit more broadly about
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: a topic. So I would imagine that it's a very
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: you know, it's very much the case when you're talking
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: about a scrutiny committee.
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: Exactly, that's exactly the point, you know, and often, you know,
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: it gives us the opportunity and it gives us society
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: and the legal profession, and you know, as I said,
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: the NGOs and members of the community, Eddie.
• 5:00
  Speaker 4: To actually carefully.
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: Consider what's being proposed, and it may be that maybe
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: that there are parts of Leed's proposed legislation that we support,
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: and then there may be other parts where we are
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: able to identify inadequacies or deficiencies which are negatively going
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: to impact on members of the community.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: Maria, did you guys realize that this was going to
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: be happening.
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: No, certainly, the first we became aware of it was
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: when we read it in the newspaper. Well, that's when
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: I became aware of it.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: Were the Law Society part of the consultation when it
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: was initially being set up back in twenty sixteen.
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: Honestly, I don't know, Katie, that's all right, And I
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: can't say that I know, And I mean I was
• 5:46
  Speaker 4: certainly a member of council at the time, and to
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: the best of my recollection, I.
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: Don't recall that, but I do recall the fact that
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: the Society certainly supported the setup of the of the committee,
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: and I you know, I'm not aware of any criticism
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: of the committee and its work, and in fact we
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: worked quite constructively at times.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: So Maria, what's your message here, I mean, what do
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: you feel as though needs to happen.
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: Well, you know, as you said earlier, really where urging
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: the government to reconsider this decision with a view to
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: reinstating the committee process. It has an important role to
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: play in the ongoing good governance of the territory, and
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: given our current economic times and the difficulties which the
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: community are currently facing, I would have thought transparency, trust
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: accountability really should be prioritized over and above efficiencies.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: Well, Maria Savas the Law Society of the Northern Territories President,
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: we really appreciate your time this morning. Thanks so much
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: for having a chat with us and really talking us
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: through the Society's perspective on this.
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: Thanks Katie, thank you.