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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 6 Hansard (13 June) . . Page.. 1674 ..

MR STEFANIAK: Pressure of time. Basically, in March this year the Assembly passed the Legislation Act 2001 which provides legislative support for public access to the legislation project. That is an initiative that will put the ACT at the forefront of access to legislation in the ACT. That project is going to establish an authorised electronic statute book called the ACT Legislation Register. That will be on the Internet. It will provide free public access to authorised versions of our legislation and other legislative material.

The March act also provides for notification of our ACT Legislation Register instead of notification in the Gazette. Planning for the register is now well advanced, and the new arrangements for both access and notification will commence in the next few months.

I heard Mr Stanhope's concerns about taking a lot of this on faith. This bill certainly makes the amendments necessary to bring the ACT acts and subordinate laws fully into line with the new legislative framework of the Legislation Act 2001. Although this bill is large it does not include amendments of a policy nature unrelated to the Legislation Act. Rather, the size of the bill is directly linked to its purpose of bringing the ACT statute book into line with the legislative framework of the Legislation Act.

This bill does enhance access to our legislation in two important ways. Firstly, it provides for extensive amendment of our legislative provisions dealing with notification of legislation. Under the March Legislation Act, the notification of legislation will be done electronically by registration on the Legislation Register. Also, the notification under the Legislation Act requires the full text publication of the law or instrument as part of its registration. This will significantly enhance access to the text of ACT laws by providing a faster access to new laws and improved access to the text of laws that previously were difficult to find. I think that will greatly assist, rather than having to go through and find acts that were not consolidated and piece together all the amendments, especially acts that were often amended. Finding amendments to them can be quite difficult for practitioners.

This bill makes a substantial improvement in the quality of the ACT statute book, particularly by rationalising and standardising a large number of its provisions-for example, those dealing with approved forms, the determination of fees, the making of regulations and other statutory instruments. I do not need to say much more. I thank Mr Stanhope for his comments. I commend the bill to the Assembly.

MS TUCKER: I seek leave to make a brief comment.

Leave granted.

MS TUCKER: I thank members. I want to make a very brief comment. I want to put on the record that we have not gone through this bill page by page. I am taking the government on good faith here that, as Mr Stefaniak has assured us, these amendments are technical, minor and repetitive. I trust that is the case. I am not claiming to have checked the veracity of that statement.

MR STEFANIAK (Minister for Education and Attorney-General): I seek leave to make a brief response.

Leave granted.

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