Bills Digest no. 94 2007–08
Statute Law Revision Bill 2008
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
Financial implications
Main provisions
Contact officer & copyright details
Passage history
Statute Law Revision Bill 2008
Date introduced: 19
March 2008
House: Senate
Portfolio: Attorney-General
Commencement: The
effect of the commencement provisions in Schedules 1 and 2 is that the
errors are taken to have been correct immediately after the error was
made.[1] Schedule 3
commences on Royal Assent and Schedule 4 commences the day after Royal
Assent.
Links: The relevant
links to the Bill, Explanatory Memorandum and second reading speech
can be accessed via BillsNet, which is at http://www.aph.gov.au/bills/. When Bills
have been passed they can be found at ComLaw, which is at http://www.comlaw.gov.au/.
Schedule 1 of the Bill amends 26 principal Acts, Schedule
2 amends 14 amending Acts, Schedule 3 repeals 27 obsolete Acts, the majority
of which belong within the portfolio of the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries
and Forestry, and Schedule 4 removes gender specific language from 88
Acts.
Statute Law Revision Bills are traditionally
non-controversial and receive the support of the Parliament as they are
regarded as an essential tool in the process of keeping orderly, accurate
and up to date Commonwealth Statute books. All jurisdictions pass similar
bills for the same purpose and entail a constant review and monitoring
of laws.
The main purpose is to amend drafting and technical errors and to get
rid of obsolete legislation and language. These omnibus bills are never
used or meant to be used to make substantive change to the law.[2] As stated in the Second Reading
Speech:[3]
Scrutiny of the statute book extends beyond the correction
of minor errors and the clearing away of obsolete Acts. This Bill
removes gender-specific language which will ensure that our laws are
contemporary.
The timely corrections and repeals of obsolete language
effected by Statute Law Revision Bills improve the quality and accuracy
of Commonwealth legislation and facilitate the publication of consolidated
versions of Acts.
According to the Explanatory Memorandum the Bill will have no financial
impact.[4]
Due to the nature of this Bill it is not necessary to give a detailed
analysis of the provisions. The Digest therefore focuses on just a couple
of examples.
For example, items 6-13, and items 19 and 20 in
Schedule 2 amend various Acts to replace the incorrect statements of the
short title of the Australian Citizenship Act 2007. The Act had
been incorrectly described as the Australian Citizenship Act 2006.
The Australian Citizenship Bill was introduced into the House of
Representatives on 9 November 2005, with the substantive part of the Bill
to commence by Proclamation. The Bill was assented to on 15 March 2007,
(Act No. 20 of 2007, the Australian Citizenship Act 2007) and proclaimed
on 1 July 2007. This Act was later amended by the Australian Citizenship
Amendment (Citizenship Testing) Act, (Act No. 142 of 2007, which commenced
on 1 October 2007). This been said, there never was an Australian
Citizenship Act 2006.
Last year’s Statute Law Revision Bill amended the Customs Act 1901
to remove gender specific language and other Acts[5] have been amended on ad hoc occasions to have
such changes made as part of the Commonwealth’s programme of reform in
this area. Under the paragraph 23(a) of the Acts Interpretation Act
1901, in any Act, unless the contrary intention appears, words
importing a gender include ‘every other gender’. However, the Government
is still processing this reform measure progressively.
In addition the Legislative Instruments Act 2003 in its provisions
on measures to achieve high drafting standards provides:
The Secretary must also cause steps to be taken:
(a) to prevent the inappropriate use of gender‑specific
language in legislative instruments; and
(b) to advise rule‑makers of legislative
instruments that have already been made if those legislative instruments
make inappropriate use of such language; and
(c) to notify both Houses of the Parliament
about any occasion when a rule‑maker is advised under paragraph (b).[6]
‘Inappropriate use of gender-specific language’ is a self-explanatory
expression defined as follows:
inappropriate use of gender‑specific language,
in relation to a legislative instrument, means use of such language in
the legislative instrument in circumstances where it is not necessary
to identify persons by their sex.
Schedule 4 proposes over 500
amendments to 88 Acts to remove gender specific language.
Diane Spooner
8 April 2008
Bills Digest Service
Parliamentary Library
© Commonwealth of Australia
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