Anthony said:
  
  For me, it is the fear of a body that does not have any knowledge of the
  area getting involved in something they know nothing about and making
  terrible mistakes/laws. They act too quickly without thinking and often
  without wide consultation. They also often act extremely slowly and then
  
  I'd see an industry body that made proposals based on strong support from
  the internet community as a very good way to go. That way, the govt merely
  has to rubber-stamp it and not interfer.
  

Bizarre. You seem to think a viable statutory body would be to re-badge 
something we already have like SMA, or simply pick random civil servants who
are 'out to get us'

Don't you think its likely that a statutory body would actually BE people like
us? I do! I'd fully expect that it would be a 'council' or other entity where
government appointed from the field, and provided the legislative backfill to
make it viable.
  
Industry self-regulation is really hard for me to swallow. Look at the extent
to which it becomes a self-perpetuating mouthpiece for only one side of the
process. Haven't we suffered that enough?

And without wanting to alienate those of us from gov.au and the like, the 
current trends to assuming industry self-regulation 'is the right way' is
a huge mistake. Its probably why bodies like the ACCC have to wade in, and
generally stuff it up trying to sort out the mess. Far better to have a body
which is outside the 'game' and has no risk of vested interest.

In any case, laws are very rarely made 'too quickly' -Quite to the contrary.
making law is an arduous, tedious, grindingly slow process. About the only
thing slower than making them, is changing them.

-George
--
George Michaelson         |  DSTC Pty Ltd
Email: ggm§dstc.edu.au    |  University of Qld 4072
Phone: +61 7 3365 4310    |  Australia
  Fax: +61 7 3365 4311    |  http://www.dstc.edu.au