Page 5610 - Week 13 - Thursday, 17 November 2011
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more than five, so that Mr Barr can count on the fingers of one hand how many people should be on the board.
The remaining five acts pick up on the amendments relating to the change in terminology for bankruptcy made previously in a number of bills of this kind. Schedule 2 provides for minor, non-controversial amendments to the Legislation Act initiated by the Parliamentary Counsel’s Office. This bill amends the act’s dictionary to include definitions of “CrimTrac”, “national electricity (ACT) law” and “national electricity (ACT) regulation”.
Schedule 3 provides for minor or technical amendments initiated by the PCO. In this bill, 55 acts and regulations are amended but I will highlight just three. A number of acts and regulations are amended to cross-reference the definitions introduced to the Legislation Act.
The bill also revives the Financial Sector Reform (ACT) Act 1999, which was repealed in 2002. The revival becomes effective immediately after the time of the repeal. The purpose of this is to ensure that appropriate provisions remain in force to facilitate the transfer of the business of authorised deposit-taking institutions from the ACT to the commonwealth under the commonwealth’s Financial Sector (Business Transfer and Group Restructure) Act 1999. This is in connection with the transfer of the regulation of building societies and credit unions to the commonwealth, facilitated at that time.
The bill makes two amendments to the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 as a consequence of amendments to the national model law. These are minor amendments but they are worth mentioning since the Assembly passed its version of the bill only in September and it is not yet operating, but we are already amending the act. Schedule 4 usually provides for routine appeals but there are none in this bill.
Once again, this bill is testament to the work of the Parliamentary Counsel’s Office. In supporting this bill I am pleased to record the opposition’s appreciation for their great work.
MS GALLAGHER (Molonglo—Chief Minister, Minister for Health and Minister for Industrial Relations) (6.11): This bill carries on the technical amendments program that continues to develop a simpler, more coherent and accessible statute book for the territory through minor legislation changes. It is an efficient mechanism to take care of non-controversial, minor or technical amendments to a range of territory legislation, while conserving resources that would otherwise be needed if the amendments were dealt with individually.
Each individual amendment is minor, but when viewed collectively they are a significant contribution to improving the operation of effective legislation and the statute book generally. For example, the Exhibition Park Corporation Act 1976 is amended to reduce the size of the board to make it a more appropriate size for the volume, nature and complexity of its business. A number of the other acts are amended to standardise the meaning of “bankruptcy”. This continues a process begun in 2009 in the Statute Law Amendment Act 2009 (No 2) with the insertion of a definition of “bankruptcy” in the Legislation Act dictionary part 1.
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