Page 948 - Week 04 - Thursday, 7 May 2020
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
I am pleased to present the PELAB bill. This bill is part of the government’s regular program of omnibus amendment bills that make minor policy and technical amendments to the statute book. Omnibus bills are an effective means of keeping the ACT’s legislation up to date and to give the government the ability to respond quickly to changing circumstances.
The bill contains minor policy and technical amendments to the following nine pieces of legislation administered by the Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate; the Chief Minister, Treasury and Economic Development Directorate; and Transport Canberra and City Services—namely: the Animal Diseases Act 2005, the City Renewal Authority and Suburban Land Agency Act 2017, the Fertilisers (Labelling and Sale) Act 1904, the Fisheries Act 2000, the Gas Safety Act 2000, the Nature Conservation Act 2014, the Planning and Development Act 2007, the Utilities (Technical Regulation) Act 2014, and the Waste Management and Resource Recovery Act 2016.
I will outline the provisions of the bill and I will go, firstly, to the Animal Diseases Act. This bill makes amendments to clarify the definition of “beekeeper”. It is meant to apply only to people who keep European honey bees. One of the purposes of this act is to protect markets relating to animals and animal products from the biosecurity risk posed by disease. This amendment recognises that native bees do not pose a risk to our honey bee industry and should not be subject to the same regulatory or reporting requirements. The bill also updates references to the relevant legislation in New South Wales.
The bill makes technical amendments to the City Renewal and Suburban Land Agency Act to clarify that the authority and agency chairs may directly employ their respective chief executive officers. While the act currently provides for the board chairs to appoint their CEOs, the power to employ CEOs is currently provided by delegation under the Public Sector Management Act 1994. These amendments formalise the power for the chairs to employ the CEO in the act itself and remove the requirement for the delegation.
The first amendment to the Fertilisers (Labelling and Sale) Act is to update the definition of “fertiliser”. The current definition is over a century old and belongs to an era when most fertiliser sold consisted entirely of manure. It is appropriate that this definition be updated to reflect that fertiliser sold today may have significant chemical compounds. In 2015, as a member of the agricultural senior officers committee, the ACT endorsed the adoption of the Fertiliser Industry Federation of Australia codes of practice.
The second amendment to the act gives the minister the power to incorporate the codes of practice into the act, thereby allowing the ACT to harmonise with other jurisdictions which have incorporated the code into their legislation. An approval from the minister is a disallowable instrument which will allow for scrutiny by the Legislative Assembly before becoming law.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video