Page 782 - Week 02 - Thursday, 23 February 2012
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The JACS bill makes a number of minor amendments to the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2008. These amendments clarify the powers that the ACAT already has under a number of enactments, give statutory recognition to the work carried out by the ACAT and to its more consolidated structure, and remove all doubt about the flexibility that the ACAT has to dispose of cases efficiently and in accordance with the objects of the ACAT Act as stated in section 6 of that act.
This JACS bill inserts a note into section 5(1) of the Administrative Decisions (Judicial Review) Act 1989. The amendment directs the reader’s attention to section 40B of the Human Rights Act 2004, which provides that it is unlawful for a public authority to fail to give proper consideration to human rights under part 3 of the Human Rights Act.
This bill also makes some amendments to the Court Procedures Act 2004. These amendments include removing certain references to the President of the Court of Appeal in the membership of the rule-making committee to reflect the current state of affairs and allow flexibility and inserting a reference to a presidential member of the ACAT in the membership of the advisory committee, again, to reflect the reality on the ground.
The bill also substitutes a reference in section 29 of the Court Procedures Act to 21 days for the time that a person must wait before commencing enforcement of a judgment against the Crown with a reference to 28 days. This is in keeping with appeal periods prescribed in the Court Procedures Rules 2006 and the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal Procedure Rules 2009 (No 2) and is a matter of making the time for enforcement of judgments against the territory consistent.
This bill makes amendments to the Crimes (Sentence Administration) Act 2005 in respect of warrants for remand. Presently, where a person is ordered by a court to be remanded in custody, the court must issue a warrant which includes the time and date that the person is to be returned to the court. In some situations, such as where the Magistrates Court is committing a person to trial before the Supreme Court, the court is unable to meet this requirement.
This amendment would give statutory recognition to a sensible approach that has been developed in the courts in these circumstances to require the person to be returned to the court or another remanding authority at the time and date stated in the warrant or, alternatively, at the time and date to be set by the registrar.
This bill makes minor amendments to the Emergencies Act 2004 and the Emergencies Regulations 2004. These amendments would give statutory recognition to the fire and rescue work that the ACT Fire Brigade carries out by substituting all references to “fire brigade” with “fire and rescue”.
This JACS bill inserts a new section 68B into the Legal Aid Act 1977. The new section brings re-engagements of the chief executive officer and assistant chief executive officers of the commission into line with the requirements for the re-engagement of executive officers under section 75 of the Public Sector Management Act 1994.
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