Page 4480 - Week 14 - Thursday, 28 November 2013
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improvements are also important to reduce the fuel used in our transport system. Unfortunately, the federal government has been notoriously slow in implementing these improvements.
Having made those few remarks, I will be supporting the passage of these two bills today.
MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Minister for Workplace Safety and Industrial Relations and Minister for the Environment and Sustainable Development) (5.51), in reply: I thank members for their support of this bill, Before I make some concluding comments, I present the following paper:
Revised explanatory statement.
In 2008 the Council of Australian Governments agreed the national partnership agreement to deliver a seamless national economy, one important plank of which is to deliver reforms to improve the efficiency of transport regulation. The Heavy Vehicle National Law (ACT) Bill and the accompanying Heavy Vehicle National Law (Consequential Amendments) Bill which we are considering today reflect the culmination of an important stage in the territory’s participation in the nation’s transport reform program which resulted from that historic COAG agreement. These bills allow for the application of the heavy vehicle national law in the Australian Capital Territory and for the regulation of heavy vehicle activities in the territory under that law by the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator.
The heavy vehicle national law directly reflects COAG’s 2011 intergovernmental agreement on heavy vehicle regulatory reform to establish a national system of regulation consisting of a uniform national law administered by a single national regulator for all heavy vehicles over 4.5 tonnes. Queensland was chosen as the host jurisdiction for the national law and home for the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator. Following Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania have enacted application legislation, and the Northern Territory anticipates doing so later in 2014. Although Western Australia is not part of the national agreement, it is expected to adopt mirror legislation in the near future.
Adoption of the national law is an integral step of a key national reform process that will reduce red tape, improve the efficiency of transport operators and put in place for the first time a truly national framework for the regulation of heavy vehicles. For almost 20 years now, the heavy vehicle industry has operated under laws passed by each state and territory based on model laws developed by the National Transport Commission. The detail of those jurisdictional laws has lacked consistency across Australia, as states and territories adopted the model laws with variations to cater for their individual needs and circumstances.
By contrast, the heavy vehicle national law brings together this body of model laws into an integrated regulatory package. Adoption of the national law will align the laws of states and territories and create a single functioning national regulatory regime. The goal is to improve productivity in the heavy vehicle industry and the broader economy
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