Page 5607 - Week 17 - Thursday, 5 December 1991
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PUBLIC TRUSTEE (AMENDMENT) BILL (NO. 2) 1991
MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General, Minister for Housing and Community Services and Minister for Urban Services) (10.56): I present the Public Trustee (Amendment) Bill (No. 2) 1991. I move:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
In May of this year, the Assembly passed two laws which commenced the legislative process of reform of the operations of the Public Trustee - the Public Trustee (Amendment) Act 1991 and the Administration and Probate (Amendment) Act 1991. The second Public Trustee (Amendment) Bill I am presenting today is the final legislative aspect of that reform process.
The ACT Public Trustee is a corporation sole established by the Public Trustee Act 1985. The main functions of the Public Trustee are to administer the estates of deceased persons, to invest estate funds pending distribution to beneficiaries, and to provide service to the public in relation to wills, including the drafting of wills. The purpose of the reforms to the Public Trustee is to increase the efficiency of the Public Trustee by allowing the trustee to operate on a more commercial basis and eventually to eliminate dependence of the Public Trustee on budget funding. Budget dependence is expected to be entirely eliminated by the 1994-95 financial year.
The reform package is designed to achieve the objectives of increasing efficiency and commercialisation without sacrificing the integrity of the Public Trustee's welfare role. The Public Trustee also carries out some activities which will in the future be performed by the soon-to-be-established Office of the Community Advocate and by guardians and managers appointed by the Guardianship and Management of Property Tribunal. These are the activities of acting as attorney and representing persons who are under a legal disability and holding property in trust for such persons; that is, intellectually disabled and mentally incapacitated persons. The Bills enabling the establishment of that office were passed by this Assembly on 17 October 1991.
The reforms involved in the guardianship, management of property and community advocate package are very significant in themselves, but in the context of the Bill I am presenting today they involve important improvements and reforms of some functions previously performed by the Public Trustee which will assist in enabling the Public Trustee to carry out a more commercial operation. The Public Trustee will continue a community service oriented role in this field by examining the annual accounts lodged by managers appointed to manage the affairs of incapacitated persons under the new guardianship and property management legislation.
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