Page 915 - Week 03 - Thursday, 28 February 2013
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
amendments will broaden the scope of who can be on panels for legal aid to broaden the pool of people who can take part while recognising the status of legal professionals other than partners in practice.
This bill inserts into the secrecy provisions of the Legal Aid Act a reference to the Auditor-General and any other person acting under the Auditor-General’s direction or authority in relation to a performance audit or special financial audit. This amendment ensures the Auditor-General can carry out a performance audit or special financial audit of the commission while also ensuring the protection of personal information. An audit of Legal Aid last year brought to the attention of the government the fact that the provisions of the act could be drafted to better facilitate the audit process.
Finally, this bill makes some minor and uncontroversial amendments to the sinking fund plan provisions in the Unit Titles (Management) Act 2011. These build on the amendments made by the Justice and Community Safety Amendment Act 2012 (No 2), which inserted two examples into the sinking fund plan provisions to illustrate how they are intended to operate.
The purpose of these examples was to prevent unit owners seeking to raise a technical argument based on an incorrect interpretation of the provisions to avoid payment of their contributions. These amendments recast the sinking fund plan provisions and insert a further example to illustrate how they are to operate in practice. The term “total sinking fund amount” is replaced with “total sinking fund contribution” to further remove any uncertainty about the sinking fund plan provisions.
Madam Speaker, the amendments I have just described fall into the minor and technical category, but they have the scope to make the lives of citizens better and easier. It is important to constantly improve the statute book and not be satisfied with things that are not quite right. I commend this bill to the Assembly.
Debate (on motion by Mr Seselja) adjourned to the next sitting.
Standing orders—amendment
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Minister for Workplace Safety and Industrial Relations and Minister for the Environment and Sustainable Development) (10.17), by leave: I move:
That standing order 178A be omitted and the following standing order be substituted:
“178A If there is an amendment to be moved at the detail stage, a signed copy of the amendment shall be delivered to the Clerk’s office by 12 noon on the day prior to the sitting at which the amendment is proposed to be moved. The Clerk shall arrange for its circulation to Members as soon as practicable.”.
Madam Speaker, today I am moving this relatively straightforward proposal to amend the standing orders to clarify the operation of standing order 178A. Standing order 178A, as members would be aware, is the provision that requires prior notice of
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video