Page 226 - Week 01 - Thursday, 9 December 2004

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community safety. Given the present unstable and unpredictable international environment, the government is concerned to protect the community from risks that the release of such information may impose upon major public infrastructure projects in the future.

These outcomes will be achieved by amending the Government Procurement Act to prevent the public release of sensitive technical information that may endanger public safety and the security of essential public infrastructure. The proposed amendments will not result in non-sensitive information being withheld from public disclosure. The names of the contracting parties, contract amounts and public text of the contracts, including the general scope of the work, will still be lodged and be accessible on the central contracts register via the Basis website.

The bill also proposes a ministerial regulation-making power to address circumstances where it may be necessary to limit or prevent disclosure of other information that may require protection in the future. Any such regulations would be subject to consideration by the ACT Assembly and be disallowable. I commend to the Assembly the Government Procurement Amendment Bill 2004.

Debate (on motion by Mr Mulcahy) adjourned to the next sitting.

Revenue Legislation Repeal Bill 2004

Mr Quinlan, pursuant to notice, presented the bill, its explanatory statement and a Human Rights Act compatibility statement.

Title read by Clerk.

MR QUINLAN (Molonglo—Treasurer and Minister for Economic Development) (11.09): I move:

That this bill be agreed to in principle.

The Revenue Legislation Repeal Bill 2004 will repeal the Financial Institutions Duty Act 1987 and the Financial Institutions Duty Regulation 1990 from 1 July 2005. The bill will amend the operation of the Debits Tax Act 1997, so there will be no tax liability in relation to debits made from 1 July 2005; and the Debits Tax Act will be repealed from 1 July 2006.

As many Assembly members are already aware, part of the intergovernmental agreement on the reform of commonwealth-state financial relations requires the states and territories to cease the application of certain taxes which cannot be reintroduced in the future. These include financial institutions duty, which ceased on 1 July 200; and debits tax, which will cease to apply from 1 July 2005. The ACT has already agreed to comply with and give effect to the IGA under the provisions of the Financial Relations Agreement Act 2000.

The FID Act has already been amended such that payment of this tax ceased from 1 July 2001. However, the FID Act was not repealed at that time to allow for the


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