Page 1583 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 2 June 2021
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was that, while an amendment may seem minor or technical, there could be significant impacts on the relevant sector and on the public.
In a submission to the committee, the Parliamentary Counsel explained that the suitability of each amendment proposed to be included in the Statute Law Amendment Bill is assessed against the criteria in the technical amendments program to ensure the amendment is non-controversial and minor or technical. Amendments that have significant policy implications or are controversial are not included.
The guidelines set out examples of amendments that would not be made as technical amendments—for instance, amendments that create or abolish offences or increase or reduce penalties for offences, amendments of acts that deal with a controversial subject matter, amendments that prejudice the rights of anyone and amendments that impose or change a person’s liability to tax.
In its report, the committee recognised the role of the guidelines and practice note in developing statute law amendment bills, particularly the minor or technical test set out in the guidelines. The committee recommended that the guidelines and practice note continue to be used in the development of statute law amendment bills. In my view, statute law amendment bills have been, and remain, a very useful vehicle for minor and technical amendments to be dealt with in an effective and timely way. A range of minor, non-controversial matters can be addressed in a single bill, saving time and resources that would be spent if the amendments were brought individually before the Assembly.
The technical amendments program has enabled a significant amount of cleaning up and updating of the ACT statute book. It has been useful in repealing a large amount of redundant legislation and, over time, much modernisation and consistency across the statue book has been achieved. The Statute Law Amendment Bill 2021 is another example of the ongoing value of the technical amendments program.
There are two elements of this bill that fall under my industrial relations and workplace safety responsibilities. Schedule 1 amends the Public Sector Management Act 1994 and the Workers Compensation Act 1951. The public sector management standards that sit under the Public Sector Management Act incorporate the terms of ACT enterprise agreements in relation to superannuation and other entitlements of certain public servants and statutory office holders.
Amending the act will ensure that enterprise agreements and any relevant commonwealth laws apply as enforced from time to time. This means that any reference to any enterprise agreement or relevant commonwealth workplace law will be to the current version, even if the reference in this legislation is not current. This will ensure that the protections and entitlements that come from these enterprise agreements and commonwealth legislation cannot be questioned or undermined. Commonwealth laws and enterprise agreements are available in the public domain and, therefore, do not need to be published on the legislation register.
Schedule 1 amends the Workers Compensation Act 1951 by removing an outdated reference. This will ensure that people who are injured at work can be fairly covered
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