Page 269 - Week 01 - Thursday, 11 February 2010
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Thursday, 11 February 2010
The Assembly met at 10am.
(Quorum formed.)
MR SPEAKER (Mr Rattenbury) took the chair and asked members to stand in silence and pray or reflect on their responsibilities to the people of the Australian Capital Territory.
Justice and Community Safety Legislation Amendment Bill 2010
Mr Corbell, pursuant to notice, presented the bill, its explanatory statement and a Human Rights Act compatibility statement.
Title read by Clerk.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for the Environment, Climate Change and Water, Minister for Energy and Minister for Police and Emergency Services) (10.03): I move:
That this bill be agreed to in principle.
The Justice and Community Safety Legislation Amendment Bill 2010 is the 24th bill in a series of legislation that concerns the justice and community safety portfolio. The bill I am introducing today will improve the quality of the statute book and make minor and technical amendments to portfolio legislation.
The amendments included in this bill have three purposes: (1) the amendments clarify or simplify procedures under the existing law; (2) the amendments improve the existing law to provide more robust protections to the people of the ACT; and (3) the amendments achieve national consistency either through enacting legislation to enable the transferral of responsibility to the commonwealth or through enacting amendments to achieve parity with other states and territories in response to developments and national forums such as the Council of Australian Governments and the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General.
The amendments which clarify or simplify the existing law are to the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2008—the ACAT Act—and the Supreme Court Act 1933. Proposed ACAT Act amendments remove internal appeals from an initial decision of the ACAT in relation to administrative reviews under the Planning and Development Act 2007, the Heritage Act 2004 and the Tree Protection Act 2005. Applicants will continue to be able to seek a review of the specified administrative decisions in the ACAT.
Following the amendment, an appeal from the ACAT decision will lie, at first instance, with the Supreme Court rather than internal appeal in the tribunal. Appeals to the Supreme Court will be confined to questions of law. This restores the process
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