Page 3557 - Week 11 - Thursday, 23 October 2014
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that administration of annual licence renewals is time consuming and costly for business. The extension of licence terms is also in line with the Justice and Community Safety Legislation (Red Tape Reduction No 1—Licence Periods) Amendments Act, which amended a number of acts to extend the maximum length of various licence periods.
Reduction in regulatory requirements for certain licences relating to signage, display of licences and advertising is also in the bill. Under the Hawkers Act, hawkers will no longer be required to display their licence or an exemption to operate near a commercial business and will only have to produce the licence or exemption at the request of an authorised person.
In relation to the Pawnbrokers Act, the Sale of Motor Vehicles Act and the Second-hand Dealers Act, the amendments remove requirements for separate signage indicating that a licensee is a licensed dealer as the licensee will still be required to display the licence in a prominent place at premises where business is carried on under the license.
Under the Tobacco Act licensees that sell tobacco products will only have to display the licence on the business premises but will not have to display the detailed conditions that accompany the licence.
For the purposes of the Gaming Machine Act, gaming machine licensee details will now only need to be prominently displayed in the main entry of a gaming area and not at every entry and exit to a gaming area.
With regard to the Security Industry Act, the Fair Trading (Motor Vehicle Repair Industry) Act and the Sale of Motor Vehicles Act, the bill will lift requirements for these businesses to display or state their licence number in all advertising material. These amendments will reduce administrative costs to businesses without reducing the effectiveness of action to regulate activities.
In relation to statutory declarations, the bill will remove the duplication of statutory declarations attached to the deed for registration if the power of attorney contains certification as required under the Powers of Attorney Act.
These changes reflect the combined work of the ACT government and the ACT business community. Comments were made earlier about how it is all designed to make ACT government work easier. These are ideas that have come forward through the roundtable and the panel that have been put in place to look at these. They have been advocated for by business. These reforms will have impacts across both business and the ACT community by directly addressing concerns around duplication, time delays and additional expense.
Most importantly, these changes are not shifting the regulatory burden between government or business or the community but are a genuine reduction in red tape. These amendments are also a demonstration not only of how the government is listening to concerns where there are concerns raised about over-regulation but also what can be achieved through the ongoing collaboration between the ACT government and business community.
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