Page 2188 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 9 May 2012
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These amendments ensure my bill accurately amends the Road Transport (General) Act 1999 following the changes that were made to the act by the government’s Road Transport (General) Bill 2012. The government bill debated last week made changes to the same act that my bill is amending, but it made them after I had already tabled my bill. My bill therefore required updating. Although there are 10 amendments, they are primarily technical changes to ensure that all the references numbering and ordering of the bill is correct and that the bill will work with the Road Transport (General) Act as revised last week.
The amendments also make several small technical changes. The effect and purpose of the bill remain the same as I described in my presentation speech and in the explanatory statement which was tabled with the original bill. As I mentioned earlier, the amendments change the commencement date. The original bill allowed a six-month starting date. This amendment allows for commencement within one year. One year is the relevant government agency’s time to update administrative and computer systems and to establish relevant community work and social development programs. It still allows for commencement earlier if the necessary updates are ready in time.
The amendments also allow for the regulations to prescribe various details about the scheme, such as administrative details to assist with the administration of community work or social development programs and applications. This detail will be necessary to ensure the new flexible payment schemes can be administered effectively. The amendment also specifies that the administering authority must refer applications to discharge a penalty by community work or social development programs to the director-general responsible for the Crimes (Sentence Administration) Act 2005. The director-general is an appropriate decision maker as he already has experience managing community service programs that are ordered through the court. The amendment also allows the administering authority to consult with the director-general for the purpose of deciding whether it is appropriate to waive a person’s fine.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for Police and Emergency Services and Minister for the Environment and Sustainable Development) (10.59): As I indicated in the debate during the in-principle stage, the government will be supporting these amendments. These amendments are about, first of all, ensuring that the operation of Ms Bresnan’s bill is consistent with the changes made to the Road Transport (General) Act which were debated and passed by the Assembly in the last sitting.
Secondly, they are about making sure we establish the necessary architecture or mechanisms such as community work and development orders, but that is subject to the further development of regulations and the detail that sits under that. They also recognise that a significant body of work is yet to proceed and yet to be completed in relation to allowing mechanisms such as community work and development orders to be implemented.
From the government’s perspective this is in-principle support for the establishment of an architecture to allow such mechanisms to be implemented subject to that detail and, indeed, the discussion on that detail which, as I have indicated, the government is willing to engage in directly.
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