Page 4487 - Week 15 - Thursday, 22 November 1990
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The process is a complicated one, as Mrs Grassby would appreciate. It does entail discussing with the preschool concerned what its needs are and what difficulties might arise with such a move to a new location thereabouts. I am confident that the process can be conducted with minimal disruption to the preschool communities concerned.
MRS GRASSBY: I have a supplementary question. When will the Minister know, and where will preschool children be accommodated if that school is not ready?
MR HUMPHRIES: There is no question, Mr Speaker, that a preschool which is not ready for relocation into an adjacent primary school or a nearby primary school will be closed before the new primary school is ready to receive it. We will keep preschools available until such time as a move can be made. There will be no stopgap measures in that regard. In terms of when I can advise Mrs Grassby, I would hope to be able to do so before the end of this sitting period, that is, before we rise for the summer recess.
Wills Legislation
MS MAHER: My question is addressed to the Attorney-General. Could he outline to the house the package of reforms of the Wills Act 1968 which he recently announced?
MR COLLAERY: I thank Ms Maher for the question. Since this was announced on radio last night and this morning there has been astounding public interest in the matter. This is what question time is for, I believe, Mr Speaker, and I will briefly indicate to the public, prior to the formal launch of the proposals, what the Government's proposed reforms are.
They take into account some long sought-after reforms in the matter of will making. They provide for courts to be able to dispense with the need for strict compliance with all the technical requirements for making wills in certain circumstances, they allow people under the age of 18 years in certain circumstances to make a will, they provide that gifts in a will to a spouse will be automatically revoked upon dissolution of marriage, and they provide that witnesses to a will will also be able to be beneficiaries under the wills they have witnessed. The current rule is that if you witness a will you should not take under it, and that has had unintended results. Also, the courts will be given a discretion to modify the Commonwealth forfeiture rule - it is known as the killer beneficiary rule - where it considers that the rule has operated unjustly to deprive a person who has unlawfully killed the person who made the will from benefiting under that estate. That has been particularly evident in situations of domestic violence where a wife has finally retaliated and found that as the killer, though properly punished, she has been excluded
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