Page 2680 - Week 09 - Thursday, 8 August 2013
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prepared. This includes records of proceedings under the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988 of the commonwealth and records of proceedings under the Workers Compensation Act 1951.
In reality, records of proceedings required to be held under these two acts are not being accessed. This means that a high cost and administrative burden is being unnecessarily imposed on the courts and tribunal administration. To remove this burdensome administrative requirement, it is proposed that section 316(6) will be amended to provide that records of proceedings under the acts mentioned will be treated in the same way as all other records of proceedings and need not be kept indefinitely.
The bill will also improve the operation of the courts by making an amendment to clarify the procedure for the hearing of part-heard matters in the event that a magistrate or coroner becomes unavailable. This is an issue which has been brought to my attention by the Chief Magistrate. Where a magistrate or coroner ceases to hold a position as magistrate or coroner or becomes unavailable to complete the hearing, there is currently no explicit provision dealing with how the matter should proceed.
This bill therefore will introduce provisions that will assist in the expeditious operation of the court and promote a more effective and efficient use of resources. A new section will be inserted into both the Coroners Act and the Magistrates Court Act to provide that where a coroner or magistrate ceases to hold office or becomes unavailable before finishing a matter, the chief coroner or chief magistrate must arrange for another coroner or magistrate to constitute the court in the matter.
The second magistrate or coroner can then deal with the matter as he or she considers appropriate. This may include hearing the matter part-heard if the magistrate or coroner considers that this is in the interests of justice. This will help to minimise the potential time, expense and stress to the parties, and will assist in the efficient management of the court.
A technical amendment is proposed for the Residential Tenancies Act 1997 to correct a reference to the civil jurisdiction of the Magistrates Court. This amendment is consequential to an amendment made to section 257 of the Magistrates Court Act to increase the jurisdiction of the court from $50,000 to $250,000 in value. A note under section 78(3) of the Residential Tenancies Act will be amended to correctly reflect that the civil jurisdiction of the court is now $250,000. This consequential amendment is minor but will ensure accuracy in the legislation.
The bill will also make technical amendments to the Road Transport (General) Act 1999 relating to the content of suspension notices for failure to pay infringement penalties and the content of fine enforcement notices for failure to pay court fines. Sections 44(3)(b) and 44A(3)(b) of the Road Transport Act provide that a suspension notice must state that if payment for an infringement notice penalty is not paid by a stated date, being the suspension date, or in the case of section 44A(3)(b), if the person does not resume complying with an infringement notice management plan by the suspension date, the Road Transport Authority will take suspension action on that date.
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