Page 2539 - Week 07 - Thursday, 18 June 2009
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have been made to improve and clarify the commission’s powers to engage private legal practitioners to provide legal assistance, to regulate those who do provide legal assistance and to govern the operations of the commission. These updates enhance the commission’s ability to continue providing quality legal services to the community and will align the ACT’s Legal Aid Commission with the current national standards for legal aid. To signify the changes and to reflect the relationship between the legal aid programs across Australia, the operating name of the commission is proposed to be changed to Legal Aid ACT.
Changes are proposed to the Machinery Act 1949. The bill would amend the provision allowing the chief executive to appoint a public servant as an inspector for the purposes of the act to allow the chief executive to appoint a person who is not a public servant as an inspector. Appointing a person other than a public servant is not currently possible under the law. This amendment allows for the chief executive to take advantage of the rare skill sets and expertise needed to conduct inspections of certain types of machinery by reaching outside of the public service where necessary to find a person with the requisite skills and experience.
The bill proposes changes to the Magistrates Court Act 1930 to allow for additional retirement on grounds of invalidity and to reform the provisions governing warrants to secure the attendance of witnesses at court. The amendment to the retirement provisions simply allows the Attorney-General to determine other superannuation schemes by notifiable instrument, besides those already listed in the act, for the purposes of retirement on grounds of invalidity. This adds flexibility to retirement provisions without altering or limiting the existing arrangements.
The warrants amendment modernises the act’s provisions that deal with the issuance of a warrant for a witness who fails to attend as required or who is likely to fail to attend. The new provisions focus on human rights compliance to ensure that the rights of people who may not be a party to any proceedings before the court are protected where those persons are involved as witnesses.
Currently, the act does not provide much guidance as to when a warrant may be issued for a witness or for what powers the court has over a witness once a warrant is executed. The amendment will update the legislation to provide factors that must be considered before a warrant is issued, to clearly state what powers police officers have in the execution of the warrant and, finally, to clearly elaborate what powers the court has to issue orders once a witness is brought before the court pursuant to a warrant. Where necessary, the court will be able to remand witnesses into custody to ensure a later appearance or to release witnesses with a recognisance that requires the witness to appear at a later date. These powers are carefully prescribed and limited to ensure that witnesses are treated fairly and that when they must be arrested to secure attendance their circumstances are reviewed by a magistrate for further orders rapidly and efficiently.
The bill makes amendments to the Prohibited Weapons Act 1997 to create exemptions similar to those provided for in the Firearms Act amendments. This would allow foreign police officers while engaged in training provided by the Australian Federal Police to possess prohibited weapons such as police batons.
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