Bills Digest no. 105 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
2 April 2016
Contents
Purpose
of the Bill
Structure of the Bill
Background
Committee consideration
Policy position of non-government parties/independents
Financial implications
Statement of Compatibility with Human Rights
Key issues and provisions
Concluding comments
Date introduced: 17
March 2016
House: House of
Representatives
Portfolio: Attorney-General
Commencement: Sections
1 to 3 commence on Royal Assent. Schedules 1, 3, 4 and 5 commence on the 28th day
after Royal Assent. Items in Schedule 2 commence retrospectively, in line with
the intended commencement of the provisions that Schedule 2 is correcting.
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 Federal
Register of Legislation website.
All hyperlinks in this Bills Digest are correct as at
April 2016.
The purpose of the Statute Law Revision Bill (No. 2) 2016
(the Bill) is to correct technical errors, repeal obsolete and spent provisions
and Acts and update references to departments and ministers occurring in
statutes. The purpose of statute law revision is to enhance the clarity and
efficient use of the statute book.
The Bill contains five schedules:
- Schedule
1 amends technical and other errors in 15 principal Acts
- Schedule
2 fixes technical and other errors in four amending Acts
- Schedule
3 makes technical amendments to the Public Lending Right Act 1985[1]
- Schedule
4 repeals spent and obsolete parts of the International Labour Organisation
(Compliance with Conventions) Act 1992[2]
- Schedule
5 repeals the Forestry Marketing and Research and Development Services
(Transitional and Consequential Provisions) Act 2007.[3]
The Minister for Resources, Energy and Northern Australia,
Josh Frydenberg, noted in his second reading speech that the Bill ‘continues
the work of maintaining and improving the quality of the Commonwealth statute
book’.[4] The Bill was introduced at the same time as the Statute Update Bill 2016,[5] with both aimed at improving the accuracy and currency of Commonwealth
legislation. In the current Parliament, Statute Law Revision Bills have been
introduced as part of a regular ‘Repeal Day’ package primarily aimed at
reducing regulatory red tape. In February 2016, the Assistant Minister for
Productivity, Dr Peter Hendy, noted that under the Government’s new regulatory
reform agenda, repeal days will be replaced with annual reports assessing the
Government’s performance in repealing legislation and outlining a course for
reform over the coming year.[6]
Statute Law Revision Acts and Statute Stocktake Acts have
been passed on a regular basis since 1934 as a means of cutting ‘dead wood’
from the statute book and correcting mistakes in drafting.[7] They are traditionally non‑controversial and regarded as an ‘essential
tool in the process of keeping orderly, accurate and up-to-date Commonwealth
statute books’.[8]
Senate Standing Committee for the
Selection of Bills
At its 17 March 2016 meeting, the Senate Standing Committee
for the Selection of Bills deferred consideration of the Bill until its next
meeting.[9]
Senate Standing Committee for the
Scrutiny of Bills
To date, the Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of
Bills has not commented on the Bill.
It would appear that there has been no comment on the Bill
by non-government parties or independents to date. Shadow Minister for Finance,
Tony Burke, has noted that in relation to the series of ‘Repeal Days’
undertaken in the current Parliament:
… the Government removed 40 hyphens, one comma and one
inverted comma; changed two full stops to semi‑colons, one semi-colon to
a full stop; and inserted two commas, one full stop, one colon and one hyphen.
But there has been a more serious and consequential side to
the Government’s red tape agenda.
Under the smokescreen of “red tape” the Government has tried
to water down consumer protections through attempts to amend the Future of
Financial Advice reforms, and cut the wages of cleaners through the abolition
of the Commonwealth Cleaning Services Guidelines.[10]
The Explanatory Memorandum states that the Bill will have
no financial impact.[11]
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.[12]
Parliamentary Joint Committee on
Human Rights
The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights has not
made any comment on the Bill to date.
Part 1 of Schedule 1 (items 1 to 34) proposes minor
amendments to 14 principal Acts to:
- fix
incorrect citations, incorrect cross-references and references to incorrect
concepts
- correct
typographical, grammatical and numbering errors
- remove
redundant words, headings and subsections and
- update
phrasing in line with current drafting practice.
Part 2 of Schedule 1 (item 35) amends a number of
provisions of the My Health Records Act 2012 to correct typographical
errors within the Act.[13]
Schedule 2 — Amendment of amending
Acts
Schedule 2 (items 1 to 4) proposes minor amendments
to four amending Acts to fix misdescribed amendments and incorrect citations.
The amendments will enable the relevant provisions of these amending Acts to
take effect retrospectively, from the intended date of commencement of the
original amending provision.
Item 1 corrects a misdescribed amendment in the Australian
Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Amendment Act 2015 (2015 Amending Act),
which purported to repeal and substitute paragraph 42(2)(b) of the Australian
Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Act 1998, but did not include the
actual instruction to repeal and substitute the paragraph.[14] Item 1 inserts this instruction. The item commences retrospectively on 8 October
2015, which is the date of commencement of the 2015 Amending Act.
Item 2 repeals an item heading in the Indirect Tax
Laws Amendment (Assessment) Act 2012 which purported to amend a
non-existent subsection in the Customs Act 1901.[15] Item 2 inserts the correct subsection to be amended. It commences
retrospectively on 1 July 2012.
Item 3 removes an incorrect citation of a short title
of an Act in the commencement provision of the Migration Amendment
(Temporary Sponsored Visas) Act 2013 and substitutes the correct title.[16] It commences retrospectively on 29 June 2013.
Item 4 corrects a minor misdescribed amendment in the Tax Laws Amendment (Confidentiality of Taxpayer Information) Act 2010.[17] It commences retrospectively on 17 December 2010.
Schedule 3 — References to specific
Ministers and Departments
Schedule 3 amends the Public Lending Right Act 1985 to replace references to the Attorney-General and Attorney-General’s Department
with generic references to the Minister and Department administering the Copyright
Act 1968.[18]
Previously, section 19BA of the Acts Interpretation Act
1901 provided that the Governor-General could make an order directing that
a statutory provision referring to a particular Minister of State would have
effect as if the provision referred to a Minister or Ministers specified in the
order.[19] Relevantly, the Acts
Interpretation (Substituted References—Section 19BA) Order 2004 substitutes
references to the Attorney-General’s Department in paragraph 9(1)(e) of the Public
Lending Right Act with the Department of Communications and the Arts, and
references to the Attorney-General in subsections 9(1) and 9(6) with the
Minister for Communications.[20]
Section 19BA was repealed by the Acts and Instruments
(Framework Reform) Act 2015, which substituted new sections 19 to 19D into
the Acts Interpretation Act.[21] New section 19 provides that where a provision of an Act refers to a Minister
by title, the Minister referred to is any other Minister administering the
Department that deals with the relevant matters on the relevant day.[22] Similarly, new section 19A provides that where a provision of an Act refers to
a Department by title, the Department referred to is the Department that deals
with the relevant matters on the relevant day. Therefore, whilst the amendments
made by Schedule 3 clarify the operation of the relevant provisions, they do
not have substantive effect.
Part 2 of Schedule 3 contains transitional, saving and application
provisions.
Schedule 4 — Repeals of spent and
obsolete provisions
Schedule 4 repeals spent and obsolete provisions in two
Acts. Item 1 repeals Parts 3 and 4 of the International Labour
Organisation (Compliance with Conventions) Act 1992 (ILC Act). These
Parts amended the Migration Act 1958 and Navigation Act 1912 on
the date that the ILC Act received Royal Assent, and were subsequently
spent.
Items 2 to 4 repeal spent provisions and definitions
within the National Health Act 1953.[23]
Schedule 5 — Repeals of amending
Acts
Schedule 5, item 1, repeals the whole of the Forestry
Marketing and Research and Development Services (Transitional and Consequential
Provisions) Act 2007. This Act provided for the transfer of assets,
liabilities and employee arrangements of the defunct Forest and Wood Products
Research and Development Corporation (FWPRDC) to its successor organisation,
Forest and Wood Products Australia (FWPA). The Explanatory Memorandum states
that all of these transitional arrangements have now taken effect and there are
no outstanding assets, liabilities or employees to be transferred under the
Act.[24] As such, the substantive provisions of the Act have been spent.
Item 2 provides that the repeal of the Act does not
affect the continuing operation of any application, saving or transitional
provisions.
The Bill corrects minor and non-substantive errors occurring
in Commonwealth statutes and repeals obsolete provisions and Acts. It also
makes corrections to amending Acts to ensure the amendments contained in these
Acts take effect. This forms part of an ongoing process of all governments to
ensure the clarity, accuracy and currency of legislation and as such, it is
unlikely to be controversial.
Members, Senators and Parliamentary staff can obtain
further information from the Parliamentary Library on (02) 6277 2500.
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