Page 1576 - Week 05 - Thursday, 5 May 2016
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instrument declaring the arrangement was not notified on the ACT legislation register. An instrument declaring the Industrial Court magistrate was made on 29 March this year and notified on the register, but cannot apply retrospectively. While the government considers that the powers vested in the court were validly exercised, the bill amends the Magistrates Court Act 1930 to confirm and put beyond doubt the validity of the Chief Magistrate’s exercise of jurisdiction as the Industrial Court magistrate.
The bill also amends one act related to the Justice and Community Safety portfolio rather than within it—the Medicines, Poisons and Therapeutic Goods Act 2008. Two new exemptions from penalties in this act will permit the distribution of clean injecting equipment insofar as this occurs as part of an otherwise lawful peer distribution scheme. These exemptions apply to the offence of supplying clean injecting equipment and the offence of aiding and abetting self-administration of a declared substance.
The bill contains three amendments to the Security Industry Act 2003 and corresponding regulation that will generate efficiencies and reduce red tape in that industry. The first exempts licensing requirements for monitoring centre operators that are licensed and based in another Australian state or territory and for those people or companies who sell security equipment by wholesale directly to retailers. These exemptions align with reforms in other states and reflect the relatively low risk of deregulating certain security activities that involve no interaction with members of the public or their personal information.
The second also exempts a person from having to obtain a statement of attainment in security operations before being granted an employee licence to act as a monitoring centre operator. As monitoring centre operators functionally act as intermediaries, this exemption recognises that the existing training requirement is disproportionate to the risk involved in their particular security activity.
The bill provides a timely opportunity to update the definition of “security equipment” in that act. While some products are specifically designed to provide or enhance security, other products, such as normal doors, do so as a by-product of their normal use. For this reason the bill stipulates security products that require a licence to sell as those being made for the dominant purpose of providing or enhancing security.
An amendment to the Supreme Court Act 1933 will transfer my statutory authority to appoint a sheriff of the ACT Supreme Court to the Director-General of the Justice and Community Safety Directorate. This amendment reflects an existing practical arrangement and acknowledges that, despite being an officer of the court, a sheriff does not exercise judicial functions.
The bill amends the Territory Records Act 2002 and the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal Act 2008 to centralise responsibility for the records of ACT courts and the ACAT. Presently, the Chief Justice, Chief Magistrate and Tribunal Registrar are each required to ensure their respective jurisdiction complies with records management requirements under the act. Under the amendment acts, this role will be performed for all three bodies by the Principal Registrar of the ACT Law Courts and Tribunal.
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