Page 1087 - Week 03 - Thursday, 18 March 2010
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The administration and enforcement of ACT trade measurement are to be transferred to the commonwealth from 1 July 2010. So the Road Transport (Mass, Dimensions and Loading) Act 2009 and the Trade Measurement Act 1991 are amended to effect the necessary repeal, amendment and transition provisions. I note that at least the Road Transport (Mass, Dimensions and Loading) Act was recently before us, and it seems to me surprising that these transitional matters were not dealt with then.
Similarly, the responsibility for the regulation of trustee companies is being transferred to the commonwealth. So the amendments to the Trustee Companies Act 1947 will enable ASIC to make a compulsory determination in relation to the transfer of estate assets from a trustee company whose licence has been cancelled.
Finally, another substantive policy change is introduced in the amendments to the Wills Act 1968. In line with national provisions agreed at SCAG, the Supreme Court will be able to order a will to be made, altered or revoked for persons who do not have testamentary capacity.
Subject to my continuing frustration over the Attorney-General’s inability to understand the generally accepted purpose of omnibus legislation, and noting my intention in relation to the amendment to the bill dealing with the substantive amendments to the ACAT Act, the amendments carried in this bill are sensible and will be supported.
MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo) (10.47): This is a bill that amends nine pieces of legislation and as a result covers a wide variety of topics relevant to the Department of Justice and Community Safety. As with previous JACS bills, the amendments are stated by the government to be minor and technical.
As Mrs Dunne has already touched on, as was also the case with a number of previous JACS bills, some of the amendments are neither minor nor technical. In this JACS bill it is the amendments made to the ACAT Act that are of concern to the Greens. The amendments make changes based on significant policy reasoning that the Greens believe has not had sufficient explanation by the government or had sufficient scrutiny. As such, the ACAT amendments warrant a separate bill in their own right.
Because part 1.1 of the bill makes changes to the ACAT Act that raise important policy questions, the Greens will move an amendment, which I will move later, to omit that part. The amendments proposed by the government are far more appropriately raised through a bill in their own right.
These questions of policy were highlighted in the scrutiny of bills report which outlined significant issues against almost all of the 14 ACAT amendment clauses contained in the bill. The government response to those issues does not adequately address all issues raised and in part raises more questions than it answers.
My office took the additional step of seeking a written briefing from the government on some of the questions we had. I thank the government for preparing those responses. However, what those answers bring out clearly are two things. Firstly,
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