Page 1582 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 2 June 2021
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Planning and Land Management and Minister for Police and Emergency Services) (11.07): I would like to express my appreciation for members’ support for the government’s technical amendments program. The technical amendments program began in 2002 when the then government agreed to the maintenance of a technical amendments program for minor, non-controversial and technical amendments of ACT legislation. It was agreed that the program be implemented by the drafting of statute law amendment bills, such as the bill that we are debating today.
The program operates under approved guidelines that set out the nature of amendments that may be made and a practice note that helps agencies decide whether an amendment is suitable for inclusion and sets out the procedure to be followed. The technical amendments program is managed by the Parliamentary Counsel’s Office and the guidelines and practice note are publicly available on their website.
Statute law amendment bills usually have three or four schedules. Schedule 1 contains minor policy changes proposed by government agencies. Amendments will be included in this schedule only if the Chief Minister has given drafting approval for the amendments and they are not controversial and not important enough to justify the introduction of a separate amending bill.
Schedule 2 contains amendments proposed by the Parliamentary Counsel to ensure the overall structure of the statute book is developed to reflect best practice. These amendments generally relate to acts of general application, such as the Legislation Act 2001, and are directed at avoiding unnecessary duplication of provisions and ensuring the maximum degree of standardisation of provisions.
Schedule 3 contains technical amendments proposed by the Parliamentary Counsel. These amendments may correct minor typographical or clerical errors, improve grammar or syntax, omit redundant provisions, remove gender-specific references or otherwise update or improve the form of the legislation. Amendments are included in this schedule only if they are technical—that is, they do not change the effect of the law in a significant respect and, again, are not controversial.
For instance, in my own portfolio, schedule 3 of the bill that we are debating today amends the Crimes (Sentence Administration) Act 2005 to omit a term that is defined in the dictionary but only used in one section of the act. The term in the section is replaced with the substance of the definition and the definition is consequentially omitted from the dictionary.
Schedule 4 is included if the bill is to include repeals of obsolete or unnecessary legislation. There is no schedule 4 in this bill.
In 2017 the Standing Committee on Administration and Procedure concluded an inquiry into omnibus amendment bills such as statute law amendment bills. The committee was asked to examine the general basis and use of omnibus amendment bills in making minor and technical amendments to the ACT’s statute book. The committee was also asked to provide some guidance or principles as to what constitutes minor or technical changes, as opposed to substantive change. The concern
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