Page 4763 - Week 11 - Thursday, 20 October 2011
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That this bill be agreed to in principle.
The Statute Law Amendment Bill 2011 (No 2) makes statute law revision amendments to ACT legislation under guidelines for the technical amendments program approved by the government. The program provides for amendments that are minor or technical and non-controversial. They are generally insufficiently important to justify the presentation of separate legislation in each case and may be inappropriate to make as editorial amendments in the process of republishing legislation under the Legislation Act 2001. The program is implemented by presenting a statute law amendment bill such as this in each sitting of the Legislative Assembly and including further technical amendments in other amending legislation where appropriate.
Statute law amendment bills serve the important purpose of improving the overall quality of the ACT statute book so that our laws are kept up to date and are easier to find, read and understand. A well-maintained statute book greatly enhances access to ACT legislation and is a very practical measure to give effect to the principle that members of the community have a right to know the laws that affect them.
Statute law amendment bills also provide an important and useful mode for continually modernising the statute book. For example, laws need to be kept up to date to reflect ongoing technological and societal change. Also, as the ACT statute book has been created from various jurisdictional sources over a long period, it reflects the various drafting practices, language usage, printing formats and styles throughout the years. It is important to maintain a minimum, consistent standard in presentation and cohesion between legislation coming from different sources at different times so that better access to and understanding of the law is achieved.
This Statute Law Amendment Bill deals with three kinds of matters. Schedule 1 provides for minor, non-controversial amendments proposed by a government agency that require approval from the Chief Minister. Schedule 2 contains amendments of the Legislation Act 2001 proposed by the parliamentary counsel to ensure that the overall structure of the statute book is cohesive and consistent and is developed to reflect best practice.
Schedule 3 contains technical amendments proposed by the parliamentary counsel to correct minor typographical or clerical errors, improve language, omit redundant provisions, include explanatory notes or otherwise update or improve the form of legislation.
This bill contains a large number of minor amendments with detailed explanatory notes, so it is not useful for me to go through them now. However, I will take the opportunity to briefly mention several matters. Schedule 1 of the bill contains amendments to a number of acts in relation to bankruptcy. Members may recall that two years ago the Statute Law Amendment Act 2009 (No 2) inserted a new definition of “bankrupt or personally insolvent” in the Legislation Act 2001, dictionary, part 1, that established a single term to cover the range of circumstances by which an individual may be considered bankrupt or insolvent under the Bankruptcy Act 1966.
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