Page 907 - Week 03 - Thursday, 19 March 2015
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
directorate for legal advice provided or the payment that Shared Services ICT receives for installing a new software system. The bill does not include these kinds of payments in its definition of a notifiable invoice. The objective of the bill is to demonstrate the government’s timeliness in paying its suppliers. The bill also means the community will be able to see and judge how the government pays its suppliers of goods, services or works, who are entitled to be paid in a timely manner.
Having introduced the bill today I intend to have the Assembly debate it in the May sittings, a much shorter time frame than we have been forced to wait for Mr Coe to bring on his private member’s bill, which the government would have sought to amend anyway. In the context of getting an outcome on this issue, my process I have outlined today will see the timely introduction of the intent of Mr Coe’s bill done in a way that will not cost the taxpayer additional money. In my view, that is the best way to proceed. I commend the Government Procurement (Notifiable Invoices) Amendment Bill 2015 to the Assembly.
Debate (on motion by Mr Coe) adjourned to the next sitting.
Statute Law Amendment Bill 2015
Mr Corbell, pursuant to notice, presented the bill, its explanatory statement and a Human Rights Act compatibility statement.
Title read by Clerk.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Deputy Chief Minister, Attorney-General, Minister for Health, Minister for the Environment and Minister for Capital Metro) (10.46): I move:
That this bill be agreed to in principle.
The Statute Law Amendment Bill 2015 makes statute law revision amendments to ACT law under guidelines for the technical amendments program approved by the government. The program provides for amendments that are minor or 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 in other amending legislation where appropriate.
These bills serve the important purpose of improving the overall quality of the 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 ACT law 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. As the ACT statute book has been created from various jurisdictional sources over a long period, it reflects the various drafting practices, languages, printing formats and
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video