Page 3342 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 21 October 2014
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Schedule 3 carries a range of minor, technical amendments that are initiated by the Parliamentary Counsel’s Office which are non-controversial. They involve correction of minor errors, updating language, improving syntax, minor consequential amendments and other minor changes. This bill amends 12 acts and one regulation.
SLABs also often include a schedule 4, to make routine repeals. However, no legislation is repealed in this bill. These amendments demonstrate the Parliamentary Counsel’s Office’s commitment to keeping the ACT’s statute book up to date, relevant, modern and accessible. It is no accident that the ACT’s statute book, in many ways, sets the benchmark for the rest of Australia. I commend the PCO for their good work and their service to this place, to the legal profession, including the judiciary, and to the people of the ACT.
MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo) (11.04): The Statute Law Amendment Bill makes non-controversial, minor and technical amendments to ACT acts and regulations. In this bill, they occur in three categories. The first is the category of minor amendments. As an example, the bill changes the definition of health service provider in the Health Records (Privacy and Access) Act 1997 to ensure it is not restricted to entities providing a health service in the ACT. This is to facilitate information sharing between members of a treating team when a health service provider is outside the territory.
The second category is amendments to the Legislation Act which are suggested by the Parliamentary Counsel’s Office. As an example, the bill makes minor amendments to make it easier to work out periods of time referred to in acts or statutory instruments.
The third category is generally technical amendments such as correcting minor drafting errors and omitting redundant provisions. All the amendments in the bill are minor or technical and non-controversial, and I am pleased to support the bill today.
MS GALLAGHER (Molonglo—Chief Minister, Minister for Health, Minister for Higher Education and Minister for Regional Development) (11.05): This bill carries on the technical amendment program that continues to develop a simpler, more coherent and accessible statute book for the territory through minor legislation changes. It is an efficient and proven mechanism to take care of non-controversial and minor technical amendments to a range of territory legislation, while conserving resources that would otherwise be needed if the amendments were dealt with individually. Each individual amendment is minor, but when viewed collectively they are a significant contribution to improving the operation of affected legislation and the statute book more generally.
The Health Records (Privacy and Access) Act is amended in schedule 1 by omitting the words “in the ACT” from the dictionary definition of health service provider. This is a beneficial amendment that will allow ACT health service providers to share vital health information and records about a patient with those members of the patient’s treating team who are located outside the ACT. Sharing of such information without unnecessary legislative obstacles will assist in generally improving health services provided to consumers.
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