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

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 04 Hansard (Thursday, 1 April 2004) . . Page.. 1608 ..

Incorporated documents

Attachment 1

Document incorporated by the Minister for Environment

Mr Speaker, this bill makes statute law revision amendments to ACT legislation under guidelines for the technical amendments program approved by the Government. The bill makes amendments that are minor or technical, and non-controversial. They are insufficiently important to justify the presentation of separate legislation in each case, and are inappropriate to make as editorial amendments in the process of republishing legislation under the Legislation Act 2001.

Statute law amendment bills deal with four kinds of matters.

Schedule 1 provides for minor, non-controversial amendments proposed by government agencies.

Schedule 2 contains amendments of the Legislation Act 2001 proposed by the parliamentary counsel to ensure the overall structure of the statute book is cohesive and consistent and is developed to reflect best practice.

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 redundant legislation. However, this bill does not propose the repeal of any legislation.

Mr Speaker, the bill contains a large number of minor amendments with detailed explanatory notes, so it is not useful for me to go through them now. However, I would like to briefly mention two matters.

First, the Poisons Act 1933 is amended in schedule 1 to allow pharmacists to supply a small quantity of certain prescription medicines to a person without a doctor’s or dentist’s prescription if an emergency makes it impractical for the person to present or obtain a prescription for the medicine. The need for a provision of this kind was highlighted by the January 2003 bushfires. The amendment does not authorise the supply of drugs of dependence which are regulated under the Drugs of Dependence Act 1989.

Second, the Legislation Act is amended to provide that if the parliamentary counsel adds a name to, or amends the name of, a registrable instrument, the parliamentary counsel may also make consequential changes to the instrument’s explanatory statement or regulatory impact statement. As noted by the Scrutiny of Bills and Subordinate Legislation Committee, discrepancies between instruments and their explanatory documentation may cause confusion to people when tracking legislation on the register. The consistent naming of instruments and their explanatory documentation assists access to the law.

In addition to the explanatory notes in the bill, the parliamentary counsel is also available to provide any further explanation or information that members would like about any of the amendments made by the bill.

The bill, while minor and technical in nature, is another important building block in the development of a modernised and accessible ACT statute book that is second to none in Australia.

Mr Speaker, I commend the bill to the Assembly.

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