Page 232 - Week 01 - Thursday, 24 February 1994
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STATUTE LAW REVISION BILL 1994
MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General, Minister for Housing and Community Services and Minister for Urban Services) (10.34): Madam Speaker, I present the Statute Law Revision Bill 1994.
Title read by Clerk.
MR CONNOLLY: I move:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
The Statute Law Revision Bill 1994 makes corrections and technical changes to a number of ACT Acts. In addition, it repeals a number of spent provisions and one redundant Act. This Bill is one in a continuing series of statute law revision Bills which are prepared from time to time for the purpose of updating and improving the expression of Territory legislation. The Bill does not change the substance of the law, making technical corrections only. It is a housekeeping exercise to bring the language of Territory legislation up to date and remove from the statutes of the Territory formal errors, some of which go back many years. The Bill reflects the Government's commitment to improving the accessibility of legislation to the ACT community.
Broadly, the amendments make the following changes to Acts dealt with in this Bill. Firstly, typographical or transcription errors resulting in misspelling or grammatical mistakes, or incorrect numbering of provisions, are corrected in the Bill. The Bill amends ACT legislation to reflect modern legislative drafting practice by, for example, removing words which only complicate the text and do not add to the meaning of provisions, and the replacement of references to provisions of legislation which have traditionally been expressed at some length, in words, with references in numbers.
The Bill also amends legislation to remove the definitions of terms which are also defined in the Interpretation Act 1967, thus avoiding unnecessary duplication of the definitions of such terms. Transitional savings or similar provisions the operation of which has been exhausted by the passage of time are repealed by this Bill. References to repealed or redundant Acts or provisions are also removed by this Bill. The Bill also removes sexist language. While there is a scheme in place for the systematic removal of sexist language from ACT legislation whereby such language is removed as legislation is substantially amended, where other amendments to legislation of a technical nature are required the opportunity is being taken to correct sexist language and replace it with gender neutral language. The Bill will result in clearer and more accessible legislation for the Territory. I commend the Bill to the Assembly and present the explanatory memorandum.
Debate (on motion by Mr Humphries) adjourned.
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