Page 70 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 12 February 2008
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For the first time in the ACT, suitable applicants will be allowed to possess their own paintball marker. However, paintball marker licence holders will be required to meet specific storage requirements.
Modernisation is also required of criminal procedure rules in the ACT. This will be done by shifting these from the Magistrates Court Act to the Court Procedures Rules 2006. Incorporation of criminal procedures into the rules rather than in legislation will give greater flexibility. The reforms will also be proposed for other court legislation.
Turning to a 2006 budget announcement, the government will review ACT tribunal structures with a view to increasing efficiency and cost effectiveness. The Tribunals Amendment Bill 2008 will seek to implement the outcomes of an extensive community and stakeholder process. The Attorney-General has also agreed to review the Liquor Act before the end of this term. New legislation will seek to implement outcomes of the Liquor Act review.
In follow-up of a commitment made by the government at the 2004 election, an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body Legislation Bill 2008 has been developed in consultation with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community of the ACT and released as an exposure draft for further community consultation.
The bill provides for seven members to be elected every three years by Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders living in the ACT. To be eligible to vote, or to nominate or be nominated as a candidate, one must be an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person on the ACT electoral roll or eligible to be on it. The main goal is to ensure maximum participation by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the ACT in the formulation, coordination and implementation of government policies and services that affect them.
Finally, last year saw the Assembly consider the most significant reform to the ACT’s planning system since self-government with passage of the Planning and Development Bill. Once it commences in March 2008, the legislation will replace the current Land Act and Planning and Land Act. The salient changes will be in the area of development applications, where the underpinning message is for a faster, simpler and more effective planning system.
The Planning and Development Amendment Bill will implement amendments to the Planning and Development Act. Amendments will, for example, clarify the definition of “improvement” in relation to compensation at the termination of rural leases, provide more practical procedures for public notification of some development applications and provide a new administrative process for minor lease variations.
I have outlined only some of the legislation that the government will progress this year before the end of the Assembly. These will build on the work first commenced in the Fifth Assembly and subsequently carried on by this government for greater efficiencies, good governance, community safety and wellbeing, and social equality. I commend the program to the Assembly.
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