Page 3196 - Week 10 - Thursday, 25 September 2014
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technical and noncontroversial. 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, including further technical amendments and other amending legislation where appropriate.
Statute law amendment bills provide an important and useful mode for continually modernising the statue book. For example, laws need to be kept up to date to reflect ongoing technological and societal change. Also, as the ACT 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 throughout the years.
This statute law amendment bill deals with three kinds of matters. Schedule 1 provides for minor, noncontroversial amendments proposed by a government agency that have received the approval of the Chief Minister. Schedule 2 contains amendments of the Legislation Act 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.
I would briefly mention a few matters dealt with in this bill now. Schedule 1 of the bill amends the Health Records (Privacy and Access) Act 1997 by omitting the words “in the ACT” from the dictionary definition of health service provider. This is a beneficial amendment that will allow the sharing of vital health information and records between health service providers who are members of a patient’s treating team if some of those providers are outside the ACT. Members would appreciate the importance of the continuity of ongoing care and management of patients without legislative obstacles preventing the sharing of health records. Sharing of information will also assist in generally improving health services provided to consumers.
Schedule 1 of the bill also amends the Lifetime Care and Support (Catastrophic Injuries) Act 2014 by inserting new section 6(3)(aa) to make it clear that the term “CTP cover under the CTP Act” extends to a motor vehicle involved in a motor accident if the vehicle is covered by a compulsory third-party insurance policy in force under the law of another jurisdiction. This clarification is consistent with the New South Wales Motor Accidents (Lifetime Care and Support) Act 2006 which the ACT act is intended to mirror and on which minimum benchmarks agreed for the national injury insurance scheme for motor accidents have been modelled.
Section 98 of the Lifetime Care and Support (Catastrophic Injuries) Act 2014 is also amended to give the power to approve forms to the Lifetime Care and Support Commissioner instead of the director-general. Because most forms required under the act relate to the commissioner’s functions, it is appropriate for the commissioner to have the power to approve the forms.
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