Page 4462 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 30 October 2018
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practitioners. Again, with nurse practitioners now regulated under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (ACT), this piece of legislation is no longer needed.
This bill also contains some technical amendments of legislation introduced by the Parliamentary Counsel’s Office. For example, in the Animal Diseases Act 2005 one amendment replaces the incorrect “compensable endemic disease” with the correct “compensable disease”. Another amendment introduces a new definition of the phrase “travelling stock”: “Stock that is being travelled other than on the property where the stock is ordinarily kept”.
Sometimes decisions made up on the big hill spark the need for technical changes to ACT statute law. For example, swapping the Department of Immigration and Border Protection for the Department of Home Affairs, or whatever it is called this year, necessitates an amendment of the Criminal Code 2002 so that its wording reflects yet another federal government change. These technical changes might seem small but, again, it is about making the ACT’s statute book simpler, more consistent and more coherent for whoever is reading it.
The Statute Law Amendment Bill 2018 might not captivate some people in the same way other bills debated in this chamber can, but it certainly captivates me and it is no less important. This bill, as we have reflected in this chamber already, will enhance the ACT’s statute book by amending and repealing legislation for the purpose of revising statute law. In doing so it will ensure that our statute book is kept up to date and that it is kept up to the highest standard. The Statute Law Amendment Bill 2018 will also help with the ongoing modernisation of our own territory’s legislation. It is about keeping up with the changing world we live in. It is a task this government and this city does really quite well across so many areas. I commend this bill to the Assembly.
MR RAMSAY (Ginninderra—Attorney-General, Minister for the Arts and Cultural Events, Minister for Building Quality Improvement, Minister for Business and Regulatory Services and Minister for Seniors and Veterans) (12.15), in reply: I thank Mr Hanson and Ms Cheyne for their enthusiastic support and their captivating contribution to this debate. This bill carries on the technical amendments program that continues to develop a simpler, more coherent and more accessible statute book for the territory through minor legislative changes. It is an efficient mechanism to take care of non-controversial minor or technical amendments to a range of territory legislation. At the same time it conserves the resources that would otherwise be needed if the amendments were each dealt with in individual pieces of legislation. Each individual amendment is minor but, viewed collectively, they are a significant contribution to improving the operation of the affected legislation and the statute book generally.
This government takes high quality legislation very seriously. High quality legislation supports access to justice by making it clearer and simpler for anyone—for members of the public, for lawyers, for the courts and for our public servants—to read and to understand the legislation.
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