Page 69 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 12 February 2008
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recommendations made in the 2005 report Responding to sexual assault: the challenge of change. This will provide victims of sexual offences with special measures to make it less stressful and traumatic for them to give evidence without infringing the right of the accused to a fair trial.
Protection of children and young people is a high government priority, with a new bill to be introduced that will rewrite the Children and Young People Act 1999. An exposure draft of the proposed bill was released for community consultation early last year. This will now be finalised to incorporate new policy directions across the act, including in the areas of care and protection of children and young people at risk of abuse and neglect; the sentencing and sentence management of children and young people; the regulation of childcare services; and employment regulation for children and young people under school leaving age.
Members will recall that the ACT was the first jurisdiction to introduce smoke-free legislation in 1994. In 2003 the ACT removed exemptions to make all enclosed public places, including licensed premises, smoke free from 1 December 2006. To now further improve health, the government will look to build on the territory’s smoke-free strategy by also banning smoking in outdoor eating and drinking areas and at underage functions. The ban will address continuing concern expressed by the community about their exposure to tobacco smoke.
A number of bills will be introduced with a view to national issues and harmonisation of legislation. These include amendments to the Dangerous Substances Act 2004 arising from the current review of the legislation required under section 224. It is likely that changes will be made to the management of explosives/consumer fireworks and also in follow-up of national developments in the harmonisation of the control of dangerous goods.
The Standard Time and Summer Time Amendment (Harmonisation) Bill 2008 will permanently alter the commencement and end dates for daylight saving arrangements in the ACT to harmonise with South Australia, Tasmania, New South Wales and Victoria from 2008. This will see daylight saving in the ACT commence on the first Sunday in October rather than the last Sunday in October and will end on the first Sunday in April rather than the last Sunday in March.
Amendments will also be made to the Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) (Enforcement) Act to implement changes made to commonwealth classification legislation. The amendments include administrative changes and the removal of the need to reclassify the compilation of classified films.
Crime investigation and detection will be boosted with the Forensic Procedures Amendment Bill 2008 to provide for the operation of the national criminal investigation DNA database.
Introduction of the Firearms Amendment Bill was delayed last year but will now be progressed as soon as possible. This will strengthen both the national and local approach to firearm controls by addressing the illegal trade of firearms.
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