Page 1882 - Week 05 - Thursday, 5 May 2011
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The bill also amends the act to insert a new section, 41AA(5), which sets out the information that must be included in an evidentiary certificate given by a doctor or nurse in relation to a blood sample taken from a person for drug testing where the person has failed or has been unable to give a sample of oral fluid when requested to do so by a police officer. This provision mirrors existing evidentiary certificate provisions in relation to alcohol-related blood tests.
Mr Speaker, schedule 2 provides for non-controversial structural amendments of the Legislation Act 2001 initiated by the parliamentary counsel’s office. 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.
The schedule contains several amendments of provisions dealing with the notification in the legislation register or gazette of the making of proposed laws, statutory instruments and amendments made by resolution of the Assembly. The amendments broaden the options available for notification by enabling the parliamentary counsel to notify material in another place the parliamentary counsel considers appropriate, if the register is temporarily unavailable for technical or other reasons. Examples given of other places that may be considered appropriate for notification include the gazette and another government website.
Although it has always been possible to notify material in the legislation register on the date requested since the register started operating in 2001, it is a necessary part of risk management planning to have alternatives in place. I note that New South Wales has taken a similarly flexible approach in section 45C of its Interpretation Act.
Other amendments of the Legislation Act include inserting new definitions and omitting redundant definitions in the dictionary, part 1, for ease of reference across the statute book.
Schedule 3 includes amendments of acts and regulations that have been reviewed as part of an ongoing program of updating and improving the legislation and form of legislation. These amendments are explained in the explanatory notes and are routine, technical matters such as the correction of minor errors, improving syntax and omitting redundant provisions.
Schedule 4 repeals three statutory instruments under the Health Professionals Regulation relating to the standards for dental technicians and appointments to the ACT Dental Technicians and Dental Prosthetists Board. The instruments are obsolete as a consequence of amendments of the Health Professionals Regulation in 2010, which repealed provisions relating to the regulation and registration of dental technicians.
Mr Speaker, in addition to the explanatory notes in the bill, as always, the parliamentary counsel is available to provide any further explanation or information that members would like about any of the amendments made by the bill. I commend the bill to the Assembly.
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