Page 4996 - Week 13 - Thursday, 12 November 2009
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legislation, and each new circumstance under existing legislation. The JACS bill program is one of the tools used by government to transform its experience into improvements in the law.
The amendments in this bill will improve the administration of the law, update the territory’s legislation in response to changing circumstances, and clarify legislation to avoid any confusion.
In February of this year, the government consolidated the work of the territory’s tribunals into the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal. The new tribunal created a one-stop shop for matters that previously were handled across a number of different agencies and tribunals. The ACAT also reduced the territory’s administrative costs by centralising the support and staff previously needed for many tribunals into one cohesive unit.
The ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act creates the structure, powers and procedures for the new tribunal. This legislation had to be comprehensive and detailed, yet flexible enough to allow the new tribunal to undertake many different kinds of proceedings.
Since the tribunal has become operational, reforms have been identified that would improve its operation even further. This bill would, for example, introduce a simplified process for dealing with appeals that go from the tribunal to the Supreme Court. These amendments would put responsibility for appealing a proceeding to the Supreme Court in the hands of the parties alone, rather than in the tribunal. The purpose of this change is to ensure that only matters where the parties actually desire to begin proceedings in the Supreme Court are appealed to that level.
The procedure for joining new parties to a tribunal proceeding would also be improved by this bill. Additional requirements would be added to the ACAT act, to provide guidance to the tribunal in deciding the issue. The amendment would mean that only parties who have an interest in the proceeding may be joined. This will ensure that proceedings do not become complicated by parties with no connection to the underlying matter.
The government’s experience in regulating licensed agents also contributed to the improvements proposed in this bill. Under the Agents Act, a licensed real estate agent is required to keep a trust account. If the agent does not do this, he or she cannot have a licence.
Experience has shown that there are limited cases where an exception should be made to this rule. For example, a real estate agent who only teaches other agents about the business would have to keep a trust account under the act. These agents do not, however, receive any client money, because their business does not involve property deals. In that limited scenario, the agent would keep an empty trust account solely for the purpose of maintaining a licence.
This bill would amend the Agents Act so that, subject to the oversight and control of the Commissioner for Fair Trading, agents could seek an exemption. This change
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