Page 907 - Week 03 - Thursday, 30 March 2006
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I would like first of all to thank members for their support. Secondly, I would like to table a revised explanatory statement, which has been produced in response to a number of comments made by the scrutiny of bills committee. I have already provided copies of this revised explanatory statement to both Mr Smyth, as Leader of the Opposition, and Dr Foskey, and I thank them for their forbearance on the matter.
Earlier this year I presented this bill and circulated an explanatory statement. The bill provides for a number of amendments to the Construction Occupations (Licensing) Act 2004 and its operational acts. These include the Building Act 2004, the Electricity Safety Act 1971 and the Water and Sewerage Act 2000, as well as the Construction Occupations (Licensing) Regulations 2004 and the Gas Safety Regulation of 2001.
The scrutiny of bills committee, in examining the bill and associated explanatory statement, made a number of recommendations which the government has largely accepted, and for that reason I asked for a revised explanatory statement to be prepared, which I have just tabled. Among its concerns, the scrutiny of bills committee raised issues regarding inconsistency in the drafting of the explanatory statement, questioned sections of the bill that incorporate laws by reference to other laws or documents, and raised concern regarding aspects of the bill that it considered may have elements of retrospectivity.
I would just like to briefly address each of these issues. On the first, the issue of incorporation by reference, the committee addressed two instances where the incorporation of laws is utilised by references in acts. The first instance relates to the declaration of articles of electrical equipment under proposed subsection 11A (4) of the Electricity Safety Act 1971 by the adoption of laws of other states or territories. Existing provisions in the act make references to laws of New South Wales, specifically the Electricity Safety Act 1945 of New South Wales. The amendment will allow for the more flexible application of the existing provisions due to the fact that the relevant laws of New South Wales may be amended, repealed and/or renamed from time to time, as has indeed recently been the case.
The amendments under clauses 1.25 to 1.29 of schedule 1 effectively maintain the existing use of incorporation by reference and delegate the authority to determine appropriate laws to the Planning and Land Authority. This will ensure that references to the relevant laws are current. The amendments will also allow the adoption of the laws of other states and territories to allow for the adoption of those laws should they be considered relevant. Any declaration under subsection 11A (4) is a disallowable instrument.
Clauses 1.37 and 1.38 of schedule 1 of the bill make provision for the incorporation by reference of the plumbing code under subsection (46) (1) of the Water and Sewerage Act 2000. This provision is similar to the provision under part 8 of the Building Act 2004, which recognises the “building code” as the building code of Australia as published from time to time by the Australian Building Codes Board. The recognition of the plumbing code of Australia will allow the minister to recognise plumbing standards consistent with those in other Australian jurisdictions and will achieve interjurisdictional regulatory consistency, the key objective of the Council of Australian Governments.
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