Bills Digest no. 57 2015–16
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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.
Claire Petrie
Law and Bills Digest Section
25 November 2015
Contents
Purpose
of the Bill
Background
Committee consideration
Financial implications
Statement of Compatibility with Human Rights
Key issues and provisions
Concluding comments
Date introduced: 12
November 2015
House: House of
Representatives
Portfolio: Attorney-General
Commencement: Sections
1 to 3 commence on Royal Assent. Schedule 1 commences on the 28th day after
Royal Assent.
Links: The links to the Bill,
its Explanatory Memorandum and second reading speech can be found on the
Bill’s home page, or through the Australian
Parliament website.
When Bills have been passed and have received Royal Assent, they
become Acts, which can be found at the ComLaw
website.
The purpose of the Amending Acts 1990 to 1999 Repeal Bill
2015 (the Bill) is to repeal 877 amending or repealing Acts identified as
redundant.[1]
The Bill was introduced as part of the Government’s 2015
Spring Repeal Day package, alongside the Omnibus Repeal Day (Spring 2015) Bill
2015 and Statute Law Revision Bill (No. 3) 2015.[2]
Collectively the Bills form part of an ongoing effort to repeal obsolete
legislation and clean up the Commonwealth’s statue book.[3]
The Assistant Minister for Productivity, Peter Hendy stated in his second
reading speech that:
At present, the Acts proposed to be repealed by this Bill are
part of current law. Examined out of context, it may not be clear whether they
have continuing effect beyond the amendments that they made.
Their repeal will make the statute book easier and more
efficient to use.[4]
There have been three previous ‘amending Acts’ repeal Bills
which repealed amending legislation enacted between 1901 and 1989.[5]
As with the earlier Bills, the current Bill repeals a series of Acts which
amended or repealed principal legislation and which, having made such
amendments, have no further operative effect. The Bill repeals only ‘spent’ legislation,
and therefore it makes no changes to the substance of the law.[6]
As noted by the Bills Digests to the earlier Bills, such Bills effectively
function in the same way as a statute law revision or statute stocktake Bill; a
typically non-controversial tool used by all governments to cut ‘dead wood’
from the statute book.[7]
Senate Standing Committee for
Selection of Bills
At the time of writing, the Senate Standing Committee for
the Selection of Bills has not considered the Bill. The earlier Bills were not
referred to a committee.
Senate Standing Committee for the
Scrutiny of Bills
The Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills has
not commented on the Bill at the time of writing. The Committee did not make
any comment on the earlier Bills.
According to the Explanatory Memorandum the Bill has no
financial implications.[8]
As required under Part 3 of the Human Rights
(Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011 (Cth), the Government has assessed the
Bill’s compatibility with the human rights and freedoms recognised or declared
in the international instruments listed in section 3 of that Act. The
Government considers that the Bill is compatible.[9]
The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights found that
the Bill raises no human rights concerns.[10]
As explained in the Bills Digests to earlier ‘amending
Acts’ repeal Bills, although some Australian jurisdictions including the ACT[11],
Queensland[12]
and Victoria[13]
have arrangements for the automatic repeal of amending Acts, the Commonwealth
does not:
The Commonwealth has automated the process of repealing or
sunsetting legislative instruments (the Legislative Instruments Act 2003,
Part 5A (Repeal of spent legislative instruments and provisions) and Part 6
(Sunsetting of legislative instruments)) but has yet to automate the process of
removing spent amending Acts, hence the need for this Bill to remove
legislation that has served its purpose and no longer has any legislative
effect.[14]
The Acts and Instruments (Framework Reform) Act 2015
(Cth), the relevant provisions of which commence in March 2016, amends the Legislative
Instruments Act 2003 (Cth)[15]
to extend the process of automatic repeal to notifiable instruments or
provisions which amend or repeal another instrument.[16]
It does not change the process for the repeal of amending Acts. Schedule 1 repeals
877 obsolete or redundant amending or repeal Acts enacted between 1990 and 1999.
The Acts will remain publicly accessible through historical databases on ComLaw
and other legal sites.[17]
Subclause 3(2) provides that if an Act listed in Schedule
1 includes any application, saving or transitional provision, any ongoing
operation of the provision is preserved.
Section 7 of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901 (Cth)
provides that repealing an Act that repealed another Act (the original Act)
does not revive anything that was in force in the original Act prior to the
commencement of the repealing Act.[18]
Time and resource constraints prevent an examination of
all of the Acts listed in Schedule 1 to determine whether their repeal
would make a substantive change to the law. However, a number of Acts were
randomly selected and examined.[19]
For all of these, the amendments they made have taken effect and in many cases
have themselves been amended or repealed by subsequent legislation. The
selected Acts do not contain any provisions which are not spent or redundant.
As such, while it is not possible to make a definitive conclusion, on the basis
of the Acts examined it does not appear as though the repeal of the Acts listed
in Schedule 1 will make any substantive changes to the law.
The Bill is one of a number of routine measures by which
the Government ensures the statute book is kept up‑to-date and in good
order. The process of legislative ‘housekeeping’ is undertaken on an ongoing
basis by all governments, and as such, the Bill is unlikely to be
controversial.
Members, Senators and Parliamentary staff can obtain
further information from the Parliamentary Library on (02) 6277 2500.
[1]. P
Hendy, ‘Second
reading speech: Amending Acts 1990 to 1999 Repeal Bill 2015’, House of
Representatives, Debates, (proof), 12 November 2015, p. 10; Explanatory
Memorandum, Amending Acts 1990 to 1999 Repeal Bill 2015, p. 2, both accessed
16 November 2015.
[2]. Parliament
of Australia, ‘Omnibus
Repeal Day (Spring 2015) Bill 2015 homepage’, Australian Parliament
website; Parliament of Australia, ‘Statute
Law Revision Bill (No. 3) 2015 homepage’, Australian Parliament website,
both accessed 17 November 2015
[3]. P
Hendy, ‘Second
reading speech: Omnibus Repeal Day (Spring 2015) Bill 2015’, House of
Representatives, Debates, 12 November 2015, (proof), p. 8, accessed 18
November 2015.
[4]. P
Hendy, ‘Second
reading speech: Amending Acts 1990 to 1999 Repeal Bill 2015’, op. cit.
[5]. Parliament
of Australia, ‘Amending
Acts 1901 to 1969 Repeal Bill 2014 homepage’, Australian Parliament
website; J Murphy, Amending
Acts 1901 to 1969 Repeal Bill 2014, Bills digest, 59, 2013–14,
Parliamentary Library, Canberra, 2014;
Parliament of Australia, ‘Amending
Acts 1970 to 1979 Repeal Bill 2014 homepage’, Australian Parliament website;
K Magarey, Amending
Acts 1970 to 1979 Repeal Bill 2014, Bills digest, 57, 2014–15,
Parliamentary Library, Canberra, 2014;
Parliament of Australia, ‘Amending
Acts 1980 to 1989 Repeal Bill 2015 homepage’, Australian Parliament
website; K Magarey, Amending Acts 1980 to 1989 Repeal
Bill 2015, Bills digest, 103, 2014–15,
Parliamentary Library, Canberra, all accessed 18 November 2015.
[6]. Explanatory
Memorandum, op. cit., pp. 2, 4.
[7]. J
Murphy, Amending
Acts 1901 to 1969 Repeal Bill 2014, op. cit., p. 2.
[8]. Explanatory
Memorandum, op. cit., p. 2.
[9]. The
Statement of Compatibility with Human Rights can be found at page 3 of the
Explanatory Memorandum to the Bill.
[10]. Parliamentary
Joint Committee on Human Rights, Thirty-first
report of the 44th Parliament, 24 November 2015, p. 1, accessed
24 November 2015.
[11]. Legislation
Act 2001 (ACT), section 89, accessed 18 November 2015.
[12]. Acts
Interpretation Act 1954 (Qld), section 22C, accessed 18 November 2015.
[13]. K
Magarey, Amending Acts 1980 to 1989 Repeal
Bill 2015, op. cit., p. 3. Since 2007,
Victoria includes in all amending Acts a provision (generally the last
provision) which repeals the amending Act after a fixed period of time.
[14]. Ibid.
[15]. The
Legislative
Instruments Act 2003 (Cth) will become the Legislation Act 2003
(Cth): Acts and
Instruments (Framework Reform) Act 2015 (Cth), Schedule 1, clause 3,
accessed 24 November 2015.
[16]. Ibid.,
Schedule 1, clause 52.
[17]. Explanatory
Memorandum, op. cit., p. 2.
[18]. Acts Interpretation Act
1901 (Cth), section 7, accessed 19 November 2015.
[19]. The
Acts examined were: Civil
Aviation Amendment Act 1990 (Cth); Sex Discrimination
Amendment Act 1991 (Cth); Therapeutic Goods
(Charges) Amendment Act 1993 (Cth); Crimes Amendment Act
1995 (Cth); Australian
Federal Police Amendment Act 1996 (Cth); Corporations Law
Amendment Act 1997 (Cth); Flags Amendment Act
1998 (Cth); States
Grants (Primary and Secondary Education Assistance) Amendment Act 1998
(Cth); Protection of
Movable Cultural Heritage Amendment Act 1999 (Cth); National Crime
Authority Amendment Act 1999 (Cth), all accessed 19 November 2015.
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