Page 3980 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 9 November 1994
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We have responded, and I now have some 66 amendments to the Bill. Normally, one would imagine that there would be howls of outrage - "Shock, horror! The Government has tabled 66 amendments today" - but, in the spirit that has been present throughout this exercise, everyone accepts that. They know that we have been trying to comply with the spirit of the committee and we have been trying to make some sense of ACT Acts.
The suggestion that Mr Humphries made - that we could somehow let people know when they look at the Act what the penalty units mean - is one that we could well look at. I suspect that in the year 2002 it would be fairly unusual for lawyers or members of the public to go to volumes like that. I think that, by that stage, everything will be on-line. I am sure that there would be a way of having a constant little note at the beginning or the end of every Act to say that one penalty unit is $124.07, or whatever it is at that time, and, as we would probably be live on-line, every time that changed, it would be automatically updated. So, that is something that we could look at. It certainly does make access to information a little bit easier and it brings consistency.
Mr Humphries said that he found some references to pounds. When we were going through this earlier, the only reference to pounds that I could find was in a regulation under the Mining Act. Since we do not actually have a lot of mines in the ACT, it is an area that had been rarely utilised. I think it was a penalty of five pounds for moving a miner's claim stake. If there are other penalties expressed in pounds, I would be interested to know about them. I thank members for their support in principle.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Bill agreed to in principle.
Leave granted to dispense with the detail stage.
Bill agreed to.
STATUTE LAW REVISION (PENALTIES) BILL 1993
Debate resumed from 22 September 1994, on motion by Mr Connolly:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Bill agreed to in principle.
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