Page 3634 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 28 October 2014
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The amendments in this bill are all minor and mainly clarify legislation to improve the practicality of their operation. On that basis I am pleased to support the bill.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Minister for the Environment and Minister for Capital Metro) (10.51), in reply: I thank members for their support of this bill today. As members have indicated, the purpose of the bill is to improve the operation of a number of existing acts through a series of small, but nevertheless important, legislative changes. The amendments are minor and uncontroversial in nature and they do not make any major policy changes.
As members have highlighted, the bill makes amendments to approximately six acts, and also makes consequential amendments to legislation resulting from the introduction and commencement of the Information Privacy Act and from amendments to the commonwealth’s Privacy Act. All amendments result in practical improvements for the community and to administrative processes within the government.
In relation to the amendment to the Administration and Probate Act, this amendment inserts a note into the act that, if an approved form is issued under the Court Procedures Act, the form must be used to give notice about the distribution of assets. This use of an approved form will assist with certainty for legal personal representatives and provide increased certainty about the validity of a notice.
There is also an important change, with the insertion of new section 126 into the Administration and Probate Act, to allow interested people to access copies of a deceased person’s will. This is an important change that provides an open and transparent process for beneficiaries, guardians or managers of the deceased person, and family members of the deceased person, to ensure the estate is being distributed in accordance with the testator’s wishes.
The time following a person’s death can be very stressful and difficult for family members and the distribution of an estate can be the source of conflict within a family, even in the most harmonious of families. The amendment therefore helps reduce uncertainty and conflict by providing a statutory right to access the source of truth—that is, the testator’s wishes.
It will also make it administratively easier for affected parties, who will no longer need to apply to the Supreme Court to access these documents. The person who has possession or control is obliged to provide the person with access to the documents and the interested person requesting access will bear the cost of such a request. This is a statutory right which already exists in New South Wales, but it will facilitate the administration of justice for people here in the territory who have a legitimate interest in the distribution of an estate, and it provides a practical way to improve the operational effectiveness of this critically important process.
The changes being made through the bill to sections 45 to 47 of the Agents Act clarify that it is an offence for a real estate salesperson, a stock and station salesperson or a business salesperson to not be registered and be employed by a licensed agent when
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