Bills Digest no. 78 2005–06
Statute Law Revision Bill
(No. 2) 2005
WARNING:
This Digest was prepared for debate. It reflects the legislation as
introduced and does not canvass subsequent amendments. This Digest
does not have any official legal status. Other sources should be
consulted to determine the subsequent official status of the
Bill.
CONTENTS
Passage History
Purpose
Background
Main Provisions
Endnotes
Contact Officer & Copyright Details
Passage History
Statute Law
Revision Bill (No. 2)
2005
Date
Introduced: 30
November 2005
House: Senate
Portfolio: Attorney-General
Commencement:
Various
The Bill amends 33 Acts to
correct minor technical and drafting errors and misdescribed
amendments, and repeals 27 obsolete Acts that have no current or
future operation.
Nationally and
internationally, statute law revision bills have become an integral
part of the maintenance of statute books. These Bills are
essential:
-
to ensure that the statute book is of the highest
standard possible, and
-
to enhance the regulatory framework s transparency and
accessibility.
Both aspects are fundamental to guaranteeing a working legal
system under the rule of law. According to the
Explanatory Memorandum, the Bill will assist this by
facilitating the publication of consolidated versions of Acts by
the Attorney-General s Department and by private publishers of
legislation. (1)
Since the introduction of the inaugural Statute Revision
legislation in 1981, similar revision legislation has found broad
support in the Parliament.(2)
Due to the nature of the amendments proposed by this Bill, it is
neither useful nor necessary to analyse them individually or in
detail.(3)
The Bill has three schedules:
Schedule 1 amends 14 principal
Acts and is mainly concerned with minor clerical and drafting
errors. For example, item 8 of Schedule 1 corrects
an error in s. 116AB of the Copyright Act 1968, which
currently contains two subparagraphs numbered (i). The item
corrects this so the subparagraphs are numbered (i) and (ii).
The commencement of each item in Schedule 1
(other than items commencing on Royal Assent) is tied to the
commencement of the provision that contains the
error.(4)
Schedule 2 amends
misdescriptions and cross-referencing errors in 19 amending Acts.
The commencement date of each item has been chosen so that the
correction of the misdescription is taken to have occurred
immediately after the commencement of the misdescribed item in the
amending Act.(5)
Schedule 3 repeals 27 obsolete Acts.
According to the
Explanatory Memorandum, none of the amendments proposed by the
Bill will make any change to the substance of the
law.(6)
-
Explanatory Memorandum to the Statute Law Revision Bill
2005, p. 1.
-
R. Bell, Statute Law Revision Bill 2002 , Bills
Digest, no. 150, Parliamentary Library, Canberra, 2001 2,
pp. 1 2.
-
Each provision, and the reason for amending it, can be found in
the
Explanatory Memorandum.
-
Explanatory Memorandum, op. cit., p. 2.
-
ibid.
-
ibid., p. 1.
Peter Prince
10 January 2006
Bills Digest Service
Information and Research Services
This paper has been prepared to support the work of the
Australian Parliament using information available at the time of
production. The views expressed do not reflect an official position
of the Information and Research Service, nor do they constitute
professional legal opinion.
IRS staff are available to discuss the paper's
contents with Senators and Members and their staff but not with
members of the public.
ISSN 1328-8091
© Commonwealth of Australia 2006
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Published by the Parliamentary Library, 2006.
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