Courts and Tribunals Legislation Amendment (Administration) Bill 2012
Information about the Inquiry
On 01 November 2012 the Senate referred the Courts and Tribunals Legislation Amendment (Administration) Bill 2012 for inquiry and report.
The Bill amends the
Native Title Act 1993, the
Family Law Act 1975 and the
Federal Magistrates Act 1999 to improve the administrative structures and processes of the National Native Title Tribunal, the Federal Court of Australia, the Family Court of Australia and the Federal Magistrates Court of Australia. The amendments will implement recommendations of the 2012 Strategic Review of Small and Medium Agencies in the Attorney-General's Portfolio (the Skehill Review).
The two key measures contained in the Bill are:
the transfer of the National Native Title Tribunal's appropriations, staff and some administrative functions to the Federal Court of Australia (this measure was announced in the 2012-13 Federal Budget); and
the merger of the Family Court of Australia and the Federal Magistrates Court of Australia into a single agency (the Federal Circuit Court of Australia) with shared administrative functions.
Submissions should be received by 17 December 2012. The reporting date is 25 February 2013.
The Committee is seeking written submissions from interested individuals and organisations preferably in electronic form submitted online or sent by email to legcon.sen@aph.gov.au as an attached Adobe PDF or MS Word format document. The email must include full postal address and contact details.
Alternatively, written submissions may be sent to:
Committee Secretary
Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Australia
Notes to help you prepare your submission are available from the website at https://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/wit_sub/index.htm. Alternatively, the Committee Secretariat will be able to help you with your inquiries and can be contacted on telephone +61 2 6277 3560 or facsimile +61 2 6277 5794 or by email to legcon.sen@aph.gov.au.
Inquiries from hearing and speech impaired people should be directed to Parliament House TTY number 02 6277 7799. Adobe also provides tools at http://access.adobe.com/ for the blind and visually impaired to access PDF documents. If you require any special arrangements to enable you to participate in the Committee's inquiry, please contact the Committee Secretariat.
Once the Committee accepts your submission, it becomes a confidential Committee document and is protected by Parliamentary Privilege. You must not release your submission without the Committee's permission. If you do, it will not be protected by Parliamentary Privilege. At some stage during the inquiry, the Committee normally makes submissions public and places them on its website. Please indicate if you want your submission to be kept confidential.
For further information, contact: Committee Secretary
Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Australia