Page 4301 - Week 13 - Thursday, 19 November 2015
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Amendments proposed to the Court Procedures Act will make several sensible changes. These include adding an overriding objective to the act in relation to the application of the civil proceedings provisions. This objective makes clear that the provisions are focused on facilitating a just resolution of disputes quickly, inexpensively and as efficiently as possible, which is a good and sensible objective I think we would all agree upon.
The amendments also facilitate the sharing of courtroom facilities between ACAT and the Magistrates Court—again, a sensible efficiency measure. The bill will amend the Juries Act to allow potential jurors to be identified by a number rather than by name and occupation. It sets out a process for this to occur by which the sheriff will allocate a unique identifying number to each person on the jury panel. The rationale is that it protects people from being identified later by people on whose case they sat and reinforces the confidential nature of the deliberations of a jury. Like some other amendments in the bill, this identifying number system is based on provisions in other jurisdictions. In this case, it is similar to jury systems in New South Wales.
The majority of other changes are also minor, and I will not go into them, suffice it to say that I agree these are good measures to improve the efficiency of the ACT court system and I am very happy to support them. Lastly, I note that Mr Corbell has circulated an additional amendment in this package which rectifies an unintended consequence of a Remuneration Tribunal decision which affected the ability of former presidents of the Court of Appeal to receive their judicial pension. This was an unexpected technical issue, and I am happy to support the amendment to correct it.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Deputy Chief Minister, Attorney-General, Minister for Health, Minister for the Environment and Minister for Capital Metro) (5.38), in reply: I thank members for their support of this bill.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Bill agreed to in principle.
Detail stage
Bill, by leave, taken as a whole.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Deputy Chief Minister, Attorney-General, Minister for Health, Minister for the Environment and Minister for Capital Metro) (5.39): Pursuant to standing order 182A(b) and (c), I seek leave to move an amendment to this bill that is minor and technical in nature and urgent.
Leave granted.
MR CORBELL: I move amendment No 1 circulated in my name [see schedule 1 at page 4322]. I table a supplementary explanatory statement to the government amendment.
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