Page 929 - Week 03 - Thursday, 22 March 2018

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However, some of the provisions say that the guardian notifies the court of the accused’s best interests, while one of the provisions says that the guardian makes an election on behalf of the accused. This amendment will correct the inconsistency between the use of the terms “notify” and “elect” and will align the Crimes Act and the Guardianship and Management of Property Act 1991, which requires that the powers given to a person’s guardian are to be no more restrictive of the person’s freedom of decision and action than is necessary.

This bill also seeks to amend the Crimes (Restorative Justice) Act 2004. The Restorative Justice Unit, or the RJU, delivers an inclusive, culturally appropriate and safe restorative justice scheme and receives referrals from a number of referring entities. Referring entities include the Magistrates Court, the Supreme Court, the Victims of Crime Commissioner and the Director of Public Prosecutions. Part of the RJU’s role is to make reports on behalf of the director-general to these referring entities on the progress of matters that they have referred. Given the increase in workload due to the RJU’s expanded jurisdiction, the time frame of seven days to provide those quarterly reports is no longer practicable. This amendment will increase the reporting time frame to 14 days.

The ACT is a party to a number of national schemes which help to promote regulatory consistency across jurisdictions. Professional standards schemes are legal instruments that monitor, enforce and improve the professional standards of members of particular industries and protect consumers of the professional services provided by those members.

To apply an approved interstate professional standards scheme in the ACT, notice must be given via a notifiable instrument. An interstate scheme remains in force in the ACT until the period of the scheme ends, unless the scheme is extended. If an interstate scheme is extended in its originating jurisdiction it must also be extended in the ACT via a notifiable instrument. However, if there is a gap between the expiry of the original scheme and the notification of a new instrument extending application of the scheme in the ACT, the scheme is taken to have expired and cannot be retrospectively extended.

This amendment to the Civil Law (Wrongs) Act 2002 ensures that, if a scheme has been extended in the originating jurisdiction but there is a gap between the expiry of the original scheme and the notification of an instrument extending that scheme in the ACT, an instrument may still be made to extend the period for which that scheme is in force. This amendment will help protect consumers of professional services and uphold the professional standards of members of interstate schemes by ensuring that there are no gaps in the application of these schemes in the ACT.

The ACT has adopted the Heavy Vehicle National Law. This law ensures that laws regulating heavy vehicles are consistent across participating jurisdictions. The Heavy Vehicle National Law (ACT) Act 2013 requires national amending regulations under the Heavy Vehicle National Law to be tabled in the same way ACT regulations are under the Legislation Act 2001—that is, within six sitting days after their notification.


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