Page 452 - Week 02 - Thursday, 3 March 1994
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SUBORDINATE LAWS (AMENDMENT) BILL 1994
MR CONNOLLY (Attorney-General, Minister for Housing and Community Services and Minister for Urban Services) (10.43): Madam Speaker, I present the Subordinate Laws (Amendment) Bill 1994.
Title read by Clerk.
MR CONNOLLY: I move:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
The Subordinate Laws Act 1989 sets out requirements relating to subordinate legislation in the Territory. These include such matters as the numbering and citation of subordinate laws, notification, tabling and disallowance provisions, and a bar on retrospectivity. The Act also recognises disallowable instruments and applies certain of the requirements relating to subordinate laws to these instruments.
The Subordinate Laws (Amendment) Bill 1994 makes three very simple amendments to the Act to facilitate the legislative process. This is very minor technical stuff compared to the issues of principle that Mr Moore has before the Assembly at the moment. In the first place, clause 5 removes an uncertainty concerning the arrangements which apply to the notification in the Gazette of determinations of fees and charges and disallowable instruments. At present these instruments are notified by the publication in the Gazette of the entire instrument. The effect of clause 5 is to enable these instruments to be dealt with in the same way as all other subordinate laws and to be notified by means of a simple notice of making, including advice of the place at which a copy of the instrument may be purchased. This will be advantageous having regard to the increasing use of manuals, standards and codes of practice as disallowable instruments in the legislative process. It also removes the incongruity of an empowering Act being notified by a simple notice of making and the disallowable instrument arguably being subject to a different and more demanding regime. However, as is the case with subordinate laws, persons who desire to access the information in a determination of fees and charges or a disallowable instrument will be able to do so by purchasing the instrument and its explanatory statement from the place mentioned in the notification.
Secondly, the Bill includes an interpretation provision which makes the preparation of Acts simpler. Clause 4 states the extent of the general regulation making power in an Act and thereby removes the need for that to be stated repeatedly in each Act when drafting the power. Finally, clause 6 of the Bill clarifies the law where a subordinate law is amended by an Act. In these circumstances, the subordinate law may be further amended or repealed by another subordinate law which is made under the same Act as the original subordinate law. This removes any suggestion that the amended subordinate law can be subsequently dealt with only by a further enactment. Madam Speaker, I present the explanatory memorandum.
Debate (on motion by Mr Humphries) adjourned.
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