Page 1515 - Week 05 - Thursday, 11 April 2013
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The Statute Law Amendment Bill 2013 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 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 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 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 used 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.
Schedule 4 contains repeals of obsolete or unnecessary legislation proposed by government agencies or the parliamentary counsel that have been approved by the Chief Minister.
The bill contains a large number of minor amendments with detailed explanatory notes, so I will not go through all of these now. However, I will highlight a number of matters.
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