Page 1281 - Week 04 - Thursday, 8 May 2014
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Other minor reforms in the bill include changes to the Legal Profession Act which will allow the Law Society to protect the primary source of legal assistance funding in the ACT. Legal assistance funding reduces the barriers faced by people who could not otherwise afford legal representation in accessing the justice system, in resolving disputes and the protection of their rights.
Other changes to the Legal Profession Act provide for greater efficiencies in the regulation and licensing of barristers in the ACT. At present the Bar Council informs the Law Society’s assessment, compliance and disciplinary processes for barristers, but the Bar Association council does not have formal responsibility for matters concerning barristers. It is intended that the Bar Council will continue in its assessment, advisory and reporting functions, but will now advise the Bar Association, not the Law Society, in relation to barristers.
The amendment to the Director of Public Prosecutions Act supplements the existing powers the director has in relation to forensic procedures by making it clear that the director can conduct proceedings for applicants under the Crimes (Forensic Procedures) Act.
The bill is focused on timely and continuous change to the statute book to streamline the operation of the law. I thank members for their support of the bill. As has been foreshadowed, the government has one minor technical amendment, which I will speak to in the detail stage.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Bill agreed to in principle.
Detail stage
Bill, by leave, taken as a whole.
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) (11.24): Pursuant to standing order 182A(b), I seek leave to move amendments to this bill that are minor and technical in nature together.
Leave granted.
MR CORBELL: I move amendments Nos 1 to 5 circulated in my name together [see schedule 1 at page 1334]. I present a supplementary explanatory statement to these amendments.
The amendments I am moving to this bill are minor and correct an oversight made in previous legislation.
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