Page 4533 - Week 12 - Thursday, 15 October 2009
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on 2 February 2010. The ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal (Transitional Provisions) Regulation 2009—the ACAT(TP) Regulation—is amended by omitting modified sections 301B and 301C and the amendment is consequential on other amendments in the bill that substantively incorporate the modifications into the Construction Occupations (Licensing) Act 2004 and the Construction Occupations (Licensing) Regulation 2004 to the same effect.
Mr Speaker, schedule 2 of the bill provides for non-controversial structural amendments of the Legislation Act 2001 initiated by the Office of Parliamentary Counsel. Structural issues are particularly concerned with making the statute book more coherent and concise, and therefore more accessible. Strategies to achieve these objectives include avoiding unnecessary duplication and achieving the maximum degree of standardisation of legislative provisions consistent with policy requirements and operational needs.
This bill amends the Legislation Act by adding two new definitions to the dictionary: part 1 and amending an existing definition. A new definition of bankrupt or personally insolvent establishes a single term to cover the range of circumstances by which an individual may be considered bankrupt or insolvent under the commonwealth Bankruptcy Act 1966. A new definition of home address, a commonly used term, has also been inserted to simplify the statute book and avoid the unnecessary duplication of the term throughout various acts and statutory instruments.
Mr Speaker, a combined total of up to 80 acts and regulations have been amended in schedule 3 as a consequence of the addition of these two new definitions. This is a good example of the sweeping effect of structural changes to the Legislation Act that impact across the statute book, making substantial improvements to the ease of reading and understanding of our laws.
Another significant and practical change is the amendment of the current definition of gazette to include an internet site approved by the Commissioner for Public Administration so that employment notices and related material usually notified or published in the gazette under the Public Sector Management Act 1994 can be published on the internet—again, Mr Speaker, an example of the law keeping up with technology.
Schedule 3 includes amendments of acts and regulations that have been reviewed as part of the ongoing program of updating and improving the language and form of legislation. These amendments are explained in the explanatory notes and are routine and technical matters.
Schedule 4 repeals two redundant acts. The Financial Relations Agreement Act 2000—the FRA act—gave effect to the 1999 intergovernmental agreement (IGA) on the reform of commonwealth-state financial relations. Under the 1999 IGA, the territory was required to implement the agreement by legislation and the agreement was set out in the FRA act, schedule 1. Obligations under the 1999 IGA have been met and it has been superseded by the 2008 intergovernmental agreement on federal financial relations that does not require legislation to give it effect. As the purpose of the FRA act was to provide a vehicle for the 1999 IGA, the act is now obsolete and may be repealed.
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