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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 1 Hansard (18 February) . . Page.. 302 ..

[COGNATE BILL:

Debate resumed from 10 December 1998, on motion by Ms Carnell:

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 Duties (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 1998? There being no objection, that course will be followed. I remind members that in debating order of the day No. 2 they may also address their remarks to order of the day No. 3.

MR QUINLAN (11.50): Mr Speaker, this is quite a large slice of legislation. It is, I gather, part of the Government's program to review and standardise taxation legislation. It is a machinery Bill and I have to say that in supporting the Bill and the foreshadowed amendments we are, to a large extent, committing an act of faith.

The Bill aims to close certain loopholes and to update the list of dutiable transactions that are not currently caught up in the stamp duties net. The Duties (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill repeals current Acts and will ensure the smooth transition of the Bill. The Treasurer assures us that the Bill will be revenue positive to an estimated $5.4m a year, so who am I to knock such legislation.

Many organisations have been consulted, mainly business ones, I would have to say, and one, ACTCOSS, a broader community group. I noted in yesterday's print media that a couple of the business groups were complaining about a lack of notification and notice of some of the amendments that are coming forward. In fact, no later than about 15 minutes ago, my office was receiving a briefing on those amendments. So far we remain reasonably assured that there are no sneakies in here somewhere that we missed.

In introducing the legislation the Chief Minister might have said that she was also pursuing uniform legislation in plainer, contemporary language. It rather depends on whether you have had a classical education or not. You can immediately understand what is meant by profit a prendre. A little bit of French is thrown into our legislation to give it a cosmopolitan air and a little dignity of its own. I will take a moment to share with you some of this plainer language. I quote:

In this Chapter -

"declaration of trust" means any declaration (other than by a will or testamentary instrument) that any identified property vested or to be vested in the person making the declaration is or is to be held in trust for the person or persons, or the purpose or purposes, mentioned in the declaration although the beneficial owner of the property, or the person entitled to appoint the property, may not have joined in or assented to the declaration;

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