Page 4432 - Week 14 - Thursday, 9 December 1993
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The Bill will prohibit age discrimination in areas other than employment, and it is in these areas that there have been some departures from the draft Bill. The Bill had provided some exceptions in the area of education which were to permit unexceptionable practices such as mature age admission schemes and the setting of minimum age limits for educational programs that are devised for particular age groups. This latter exception allows, for example, the setting of entry ages for preschool and kindergarten. These are necessary and they reflect the practice in other States.
In response to ACT circumstances, a further exception that permitted the setting of upper age limits for senior secondary colleges was included in the draft Bill. This was considered necessary to provide for the possibility of the need to restrict the number of mature age students at senior secondary colleges, given that the Canberra Institute of Technology provides a mature age Year 12 program. The exception will now operate only until the beginning of 1996, as it may unfairly restrict opportunities to complete secondary education. The extension of time will allow the Department of Education and Training to monitor the situation and review funding policies for senior school education so that they are consistent with the Discrimination Act. I would have preferred to remove the exception immediately, but the two-year delay will avoid creating short-term difficulties that could place pressure on the standards of education in the ACT.
Members will note that there is an additional exception that did not appear in the draft Bill. This exception excludes decisions made in the selection of prospective adoptive parents from the provisions of the Discrimination Act. The Adoption Act contains some provisions that conflict with the Discrimination Act, namely, restricting adoptions to heterosexual couples or, in certain circumstances, single people. It was made clear when the Adoption Act was passed that I would be seeking permanent exception from the Discrimination Act so that adoption practice in the ACT would continue to reflect the desired community standard which I believe is consistent across all Australian jurisdictions.
Earlier adoption legislation contained restrictions about the age of prospective adoptive parents. As a result of community consultations on the Adoption Bill, these were taken out of the legislation to be placed in administrative guidelines so that they could be applied more flexibly and be more receptive to change. Without an immediate exception in the Discrimination Act, these guidelines would constitute unlawful discrimination. The exception for adoption procedures has been included in the Discrimination Act at this stage primarily to permit the operation of these age guidelines. An existing provision in the Discrimination Act for anything done to comply with other ACT laws covers the otherwise discriminatory provisions in the Adoption Act. However, this is intended only as a temporary exception. As the adoption legislation has been considered so intensively by the Assembly and the community - that is something of an understatement, I think - I believe that it is appropriate to include the exception at this time.
The Bill also provides an exception that recognises and excludes actions based on the laws relating to the legal capacity of minors. In the ACT the legal capacity of minors to enter into contracts is largely based on the common law which provides protection for minors at the cost of some uncertainty for the other party. The common law position is that a person contracting with a minor cannot be certain that the contract will in all circumstances be enforceable against the minor.
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