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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 11 Hansard (30 November) . . Page.. 3474 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (continuing):

versions of printed legislation. In addition, for users without Internet facilities, on-line access to the register will be provided in convenient places-for example, the ACT Shopfront and ACT public libraries.

The system underlying the publication of printed legislation has changed little in decades. It is paper based, requires extensive manual administration, and is inherently clumsy, slow and costly. It does not take advantage of well proven, publishing technology or the ACT's modern IT infrastructure.

With the rate of legislative change, it is impossible to satisfy the demand for timely, printed copies of up-to-date legislation, or make them available for purchase at a reasonable cost. This, in turn, has consequences for government, special interest groups and the community generally.

For example, it is a basic principle of our legal system that people are presumed to know the law, and that ignorance of the law is no excuse. An ability to reasonably access the law undermines this important principle. Business, particularly small business, is disadvantaged by the current paper-based system. Business must comply with licensing and other regulatory requirements and meet the associated costs. As these entitlements and obligations are often subject to legislative change, business must have ready access to reliable, up-to-date legislation to make informed decisions and minimise regulatory costs. Small business is particularly disadvantaged by the current paper-based system.

Ordinary citizens also have important entitlements and obligations fixed by legislation. Without an efficient and economical means of accessing up-to-date legislation, they often have difficulty getting answers to basic questions. For the courts and law enforcement agencies, the importance of having quick access to authoritative, up-to-date legislation is self-evident.

Advances in computer technology have made Internet publishing a practical and economic way of providing the public with quick access to up-to-date, reliable information. The legislation register will display ACT legislation and related information in PDF format. PDF-portable document format-is used extensively for Internet publications in both the public and private sectors. It is a simple, well-proven, low-cost and highly effective publishing format that has the additional benefit of preserving the printed form of documents. PDF documents display and print consistently regardless of the kind of computer used. They are also highly secure.

The provision of ACT legislation in authorised electronic form will bring substantial cost and productivity savings across government and to the community generally. For example, there will be ongoing productivity gains across government arising from fast and reliable access to the relevant current law by government officials. Given the extent of legislation usage by legislators, courts, tribunals and senior administrators, these will be substantial.

There will be savings across government and in the private sector arising from a reduced need to purchase printed legislation. In the area of education, free Internet access to up-to-date and authoritative legislation will significantly benefit the many students, educators and educational institutions involved in the legal studies courses offered by Canberra's universities and secondary colleges. For people with significant sight

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