Mr DEAN ( Windermere ) - Madam President, I will be making a fairly short comment on this bill. I c concentrated on the previous one that is now going to be deferred. This is a huge change for local government when you look across the whole thing. As the member for Apsley said, it is not only moving a huge amount of infrastructure from a local government into the new authorities but in Launceston's case it is almost 100 employees who will transfer from the Launceston City Council across to the new authorities, including the common services corporation. That is a huge number of people; it is a huge change. There are still a lot of terms and determinants to be sorted out; lots of changes have to occur. It is going to be interesting to see whether or not it really functions as of and from 1 July. Lots of things are in place but there will be teething problems and that is to be expected but I guess we had to do it at some stage.

It is interesting. When you read through the second reading speech, it refers to the transfer to corporations on 1 July 2009 and the full commencement of all of their operations and that it has become evident that some provisions of the act require an earlier commencement date. I am not quite sure how that is going to occur because there are only 35 days between today and 1 July when the new authority commences. I am not quite sure how one can get those things up and running much earlier than 1 July. Perhaps the Treasurer may be able to relate to that more in his answer to the debate.

The other comment is in relation to the common services corporation. There has been lots of discussion in relation to that corporation and where it will be domiciled and very clearly it has been set up so that it will be head-quartered in Launceston. However, there are grave concerns held in local government in Launceston and across that region, as to when and where and if ever that corporation will be domiciled in Launceston. If it is, how many within that corporation will be operative from Launceston? That is the headquarters and we are told that that service will have close to 100 positions. That is a significant number of people that will be operating and working within that part of this common services corporation. For a place like Launceston it is a significant change and brings a lot of people into that area. Almost 100 families could be brought into Launceston as a result of that. Launceston City Council is concerned that that will be a long way away. With the current CEO, Christine Mucha, being a Hobart person we have grave concerns that that will occur within the next 12 months or so and it could well be a number of years away. That is an issue and a real concern moving forward.

We would have liked a commitment that that authority would be set up in Launceston as of a certain date, but that has not been forthcoming. They simply say that the authority will be set up in Launceston in time. But when? That is a concern moving forward for this. I will be supporting this bill but, as I said, I was contemplating about the other one.