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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 14 Hansard (9 December) . . Page.. 4718 ..
Debate resumed from 2 December 1997, on motion by Mrs Carnell:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Bill agreed to in principle.
Leave granted to dispense with the detail stage.
Bill agreed to.
[COGNATE BILLS:
(CONSEQUENTIAL PROVISIONS) BILL 1997
WILLS (AMENDMENT) BILL 1997]
Debate resumed from 25 September 1997, on motion by Mr Humphries:
That this Bill be agreed to in principle.
MR SPEAKER: Is it the wish of the Assembly to debate this order of the day concurrently with the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration (Consequential Provisions) Bill 1997 and the Wills (Amendment) Bill 1997? There being no objection, that course will be followed. I remind members that in debating order of the day No. 7 they may also address their remarks to orders of the day Nos 8 and 9.
MR WOOD (12.06): I shall do that, Mr Speaker, though my comments will be brief. The Opposition will be supporting these Bills. The principal impact of the Bills is to put into place an agreement between States and Territories for uniform laws about recording births, marriages and deaths. I think this is an important principle. We see it here, as we see it in a large number of other Bills coming to the Assembly, because of the very mobile nature of the Australian population. Indeed, the ACT population is probably more mobile than that of most parts of Australia.
One measure will be of benefit to all of us. Certainly, I could have used it on a recent occasion. That is the ability to obtain documents from interstate through the local registry, rather than to have to front up to where the documents are actually held. A welcome modernisation of limitations on providing a surname for children, which provides for greater flexibility, is also an important aspect of these Bills; as also is the ability for a little more flexibility and some restrictions about changing a name.
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