Page 71 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 14 February 2012
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support the intention of the legislation and will put the value of a land rent lease beyond doubt. Additionally, the Duties Amendment Bill (No 2) will amend the Duties Act 1999 by removing the duty liability on the transfer of short-term commercial subleases, reducing red tape and providing efficiencies to business by removing a small but time-consuming tax.
Through the introduction of the Rates Amendment Bill 2012 the government will seek to correct an anomaly of the Rates Act 2004, which charges commercial rates and land tax on all such leases regardless of their purpose.
The 2012 program will also focus on the government’s commitment to making Canberra the most sustainable city in Australia. In line with our commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the ACT, the government will introduce the Energy Efficiency Improvement Bill 2012 to create an ACT supplier-obligation energy efficiency scheme to stimulate broad-scale energy efficiency improvements of home and small business, with a particular focus on assisting low income earners.
Additionally, the Electricity Feed-in (Renewable Energy Premium) Amendment Bill 2012 will be introduced to address the likely scenario of a capacity overrun in the now-closed micro and medium-scale feed-in tariff scheme.
To protect and conserve our heritage places through a more simplified, open and transparent process, the government will introduce the Heritage Amendment Bill 2012. The bill will make amendments in response to the review by Duncan Marshall into the operations of the Heritage Act 2004.
The Assembly may also like to note that the government will bring forward an exposure draft bill of changes to the Nature Conservation Act as a result of the comprehensive review and community response to the discussion paper released in November 2010.
The program will also include a number of bills to clarify the interpretation of protection for those most vulnerable in our community. The government will introduce amendments to the Children and Young People Act to clarify aspects of the act and provide additional protection to children and young people in territory care. The amendments will authorise the withdrawal of a general parental authority to entities who no longer provide care, clarify provisions of the act and ensure that children on care orders in the ACT continue to be protected when residing in other jurisdictions. In addition, minor amendments are required arising from the human rights review of the ACT youth justice system into the use of force and “good order” of a detention place. Clarity is also required on the implementation of the Children and Young People Death Review Committee.
Additionally, the government will introduce the Disability Services Amendment Bill 2012 to ensure that the Minister for Community Services is able to make a disability service standard and enable the government to ensure that all disability service providers comply with service standards.
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