Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 5 Hansard (8 May) . . Page.. 1682 ..

MR WOOD (continuing):

drafting practices, language usage, printing formats and styles throughout the years. It is important to maintain a minimal level of consistency in presentation and to maintain cohesion between legislation coming from different sources at different times so that better access to and understanding of the law is achieved.

This bill deals with four matters. Schedule 1 contains minor amendments proposed by government agencies. Schedule 2 contains amendments to the Legislation Act 2001 proposed by the Parliamentary Counsel to ensure that the overall structure of the statute book is cohesive and consistent and is developed to reflect best practice. It also contains amendments to further enhance access to ACT legislation.

Schedule 3 contains technical amendments proposed by the Parliamentary Counsel to correct minor typographical or clerical errors, improve grammar or syntax, omit redundant provisions, include explanatory notes or otherwise update or improve the form of the legislation. Schedule 4 repeals a redundant act. It would be remiss of me not to mention several of the amendments of the Legislation Act in Schedule 2 and related technological changes to the legislation register, which further enhance access to ACT legislation.

The scope of chapter 3 of the act, which deals with authorised versions of legislation and evidence of acts and statutory instruments, will be extended to include legislative material such as explanatory statements for bills. This will give legislative materials that are authorised by the Parliamentary Counsel the same status as authorised copies of legislation. The principal benefit will be that the various presumptions in the chapter about the correctness, et cetera, of authorised copies of legislation will apply to legislative material.

The chapter will also be amended to permit authorised electronic copies of legislation and legislative material to be obtained by downloading authorised electronic copies from the legislation register. At present, electronic copies are only authorised when they are actually viewed at the approved web site.

Related amendments will also permit authorised written copies of legislation and legislative material to be produced by users directly from authorised electronic copies. At present, only copies printed by authority of the territory government are authorised copies. The change means that any copies of legislation or legislative material that a person prints from an authorised electronic file will be authorised copies.

The amendments of chapter 3 will be supported by technological improvements to the legislation register. In particular, digital signatures will allow users to verify the authenticity and accuracy of authorised electronic files of legislation and legislative material published on the register. They will enable users to ensure that what appears to be an authorised copy of legislation or legislative material is in fact an authorised copy. The digital signature technology will complement measures that have already been implemented to make the ACT's electronic legislation secure and reliable. One important measure has been to provide a secure web site for the legislation register, using a certification service that allows users to verify that the site is legitimate.

To check whether an electronic file of legislation or legislative material that purports to be authorised is in fact authorised, a user can verify the legitimacy of the web site at

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .