Page 4302 - Week 13 - Thursday, 19 November 2015

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I am moving this amendment to the bill, which is urgent and technical in nature, which seeks to amend the Supreme Court Act 1933 to rectify an unintended consequence arising from a determination of the ACT Remuneration Tribunal made on 25 September this year which is that a calculation cannot be made to determine the judicial pension entitlements of former presidents of the Court of Appeal. In the Remuneration Tribunal’s accompanying statement to determination No 8 of this year the tribunal stated it had decided not to determine remuneration for the president of the Court of Appeal as the position had been abolished in April of this year by the Courts (Legislation Amendment) Act 2015.

That determination also revoked the previous salary determination for the position of the president of the Court of Appeal, determination No 8 of 2014. Under our judicial pension scheme it is still necessary for a salary to be determined in order to use the legislative formula to determine the amount of a retired judge’s pension entitlements. The amendment I am moving therefore will enable a salary to be determined for the purpose of calculating the pension entitlements of a judge who was appointed to a position which has been abolished.

Amendment agreed to.

Bill, as a whole, as amended, agreed to.

Bill, as amended, agreed to.

Animal Diseases (Beekeeping) Amendment Bill 2015

Debate resumed from 29 October 2015, on motion by Mr Rattenbury:

That this bill be agreed to in principle.

MR COE (Ginninderra) (5.41): The opposition is pleased to support the Animal Diseases (Beekeeping) Amendment Bill 2015. This bill is a reasonable response to a current gap in the legislation. The bill removes the regulation of bees from the Domestic Animals Act 2000 to the more appropriate Animal Diseases Act 2005. It also amends the Animal Diseases Regulation 2006 and repeals the current beekeeping code of practice.

It was a surprise to me that this was something the ACT does not regulate. Prior to this, I had thought that the ACT government regulated everything that moved. But as it turned out bees were exempt. In the last few years beekeepers have been able to operate without being registered and without the government knowing who they are or where they are keeping their hives.

Unfortunately, given the risk of bee viruses and varroa destructor mite it is important that information about the location and movement of hives can be quickly accessed when there is a bee biosecurity incident. Bees are an important part of the pollination process for many crops in Australia and preventing and managing infection is vital.


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