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Statute Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill (No. 2)

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Speakers - Hannaford The Hon John; Vaughan The Hon Bryan
Business - Bill, Second Reading, In Committee, Amendment

STATUTE LAW (MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS) BILL (No. 2)
Second Reading

The Hon. J. P. HANNAFORD (Attorney General, Minister for Justice, and Vice President of the Executive Council) [8.43]: I move:
      That this bill be now read a second time.

I seek leave to have the second reading speech incorporated in Hansard. In Committee I will move a further minor amendment to the Crimes Act, and I will explain the details of that amendment at that stage.

Leave granted.
      The Statute Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill (No. 2) continues the well-established statute law revision program which commenced in 1984. The bill is the twenty-first bill to be introduced in the program. The statute law revision program is recognised by all members as a cost-
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effective and efficient method of dealing with amendments of the kind included in the bill. The form of the bill is similar to that of previous bills in the statute law revision program. Schedule 1 to the bill contains policy changes of a minor and non-controversial nature that the Minister responsible for the legislation to be amended considers to be too inconsequential to warrant the introduction of a separate amending bill. The schedule contains amendments to 20 Acts. I will mention a few of the amendments to provide honourable members with an indication of the kinds of amendments involved. Some amendments arise out of other amendments previously made to the Act concerned.
      For example, the amendment to the Guardianship Act 1987 will ensure that the Supreme Court will not be able to make orders for the carrying out of special medical treatment, such as sterilisation, when the court is exercising its jurisdiction with respect to guardianship. The amendment reinstates a previous restriction on the power of the court. The removal of that restriction was an unintended consequence of earlier amendments to the Act. Similarly, amendments to the Liquor (Amendment) Act 1993 and the Registered Clubs (Amendment) Act 1993, together with consequential amendments to the principal Acts in schedule 2 to the bill, are made for consistency with similar amendments that were made during the committee stages of the debate on the bills for those amending Acts. For example, the Liquor (Amendment) Bill, as introduced, proposed to amend the sections relating to various kinds of liquor licences to allow the Licensing Court to grant applications for extensions of trading hours for a trial period. Amendments in Committee limited that trial to a period of up to six months in relation to hoteliers' licences. For consistency, one of the amendments in this bill imposes the same limitation on the proposed trial period in relation to the other licences concerned.
      Examples of other amendments contained in schedule 1 are the amendments to the Disability Services Act 1993 and to the Zoological Parks Board Act 1973. The amendment to the Disability Services Act 1993 will allow full effect to be given to the disability agreement between the Commonwealth and the State that was entered into on 30th July, 1991. The effect of the amendment is to permit the Minister for Health to obtain financial assistance under the Act for the funding of certain psychiatric disability services. The services concerned will have to conform to the objects and principles of the Act. The amendment to the Zoological Parks Board Act 1973 is to make it clear that the board has the power to administer trust property as a trustee even if some of the purposes of the trust are not related to the functions of the board, and even if the board is, or could be, a beneficiary under the trust.
      A final example of the kind of amendment contained in schedule 1 is the first of the amendments to the Geographical Names Act 1966. That amendment is concerned with the gender-specific language in the Act. The House will be aware that it is some time since legislation in New South Wales was couched in gender-specific terms. It is now proposed that this and future statute law legislation will amend older Acts with a view to ridding the statute book of sexist language. Schedule 2 deals with matters of pure statute law revision consisting of minor technical changes to legislation that the Parliamentary Counsel considers are appropriate for inclusion in the bill. Some amendments in schedule 2 update obsolete references, some correct typographical errors, some omit unnecessary material or insert missing material, some make changes in consequence of amendments made by other Acts, some give effect to previous amendments that could not take effect and one revokes the repeal of an Act.
      The revocation of the repeal, which is made by the amendment to the Statute Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1991, is to remove any doubt as to the status of an agreement ratified by the repealed Act. Schedule 3 contains repeals. It repeals amending Acts that are no longer necessary because the amendments have been incorporated in reprints of the relevant principal Acts. It also repeals an Act that is no longer of practical utility. More than 300 Acts were repealed by the Statute Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bills passed last year. Accordingly, only a small number of Acts is proposed for repeal on this occasion. Schedule 4 to the bill contains provisions dealing with the effect of amendments on amending Acts, savings clauses for the repealed Acts and a power to make regulations for transitional matters, if necessary. The various amendments are explained in detail in explanatory notes set out beneath the amendments to each of the Acts concerned.
      Rather than repeat the information contained in those notes, I invite honourable members to examine the various amendments and accompanying explanatory material and, if any concern or need for clarification arises, to approach me regarding the matter. If necessary, I will arrange for government officers to provide additional information on the matters raised. If any particular matter of concern cannot be resolved and is likely to delay the passage of the bill, the Government is prepared to consider, as has previously been the case, withdrawing the matter from the bill.

I commend the bill to the House.

The Hon. B. H. VAUGHAN (Deputy Leader of the Opposition) [8.44]: The Opposition supports the proposed legislation.

The Hon. ELISABETH KIRKBY [8.45]: The Australian Democrats support the Statute Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill (No. 2). I wish to refer to a number of notable amendments in the bill. An amendment has been made to the Disability Services Act to give full effect to the Commonwealth-State disability services agreement. Amendments have also been made to the Optical Dispensers Act 1963, the Parliamentary Electorates and Elections Act 1912 and the Physiotherapists Registration Act 1945. These all have the effect of not requiring information to be published in the Government Gazette because that information is available for inspection during office hours.

The Justices Act 1902 has been amended to allow penalty notices issued under section 24 of the Centennial Park and Moore Park Trust Act to be brought within the self-enforcing infringement notice scheme. The amendment will also allow short descriptions of offences to be prescribed for indictable offences but may be dealt with summarily as well as for summary offences. The amendment to the Guardianship Act 1987 reinstates a restriction which was unintentionally removed by the Guardianship (Amendment) Act 1993. That restriction prevents the Supreme Court making orders for the carrying out of special medical treatment, for example, sterilisation and other medical treatment prescribed by the regulations, on patients who are 16 or more years old but who are incapable of giving consent to the carrying out of such treatment. Finally, amendment has been made to the Telecommunications (Interception) Act (New South Wales) 1987 so that the eligible authority has three months instead of two months in which to submit an annual report to the Minister. This is consequential to amendments recently made in Commonwealth legislation. The Australian Democrats support the bill.

The Hon. J. P. HANNAFORD (Attorney General, Minister for Justice, and Vice President of the Executive Council) [8.46], in reply: I thank honourable members for their support of the bill, and I commend it to the House.

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In Committee

Schedule 1

The Hon. J. P. HANNAFORD (Attorney General, Minister for Justice, and Vice President of the Executive Council) [8.47]: I move:
      Page 2, Schedule 1. After line 36, insert:
CRIMES ACT 1900 No. 40
      AMENDMENTS
      (1) Section 474G (Procedure for conducting inquiry):
                      From section 474G(2)(b), omit "as a prescribed person", insert instead "under this section".
      (2) Eleventh Schedule (Savings and transitional provisions):
                      After clause 10(2), insert:
                      (3) Despite subclause (1), subsections (2), (3) and (4) of section 474G (which confer certain powers on a person conducting an inquiry under Division 4 of Part 13A) extend to a prescribed person conducting an inquiry under section 475 and to any witness summoned by or before the prescribed person.
      COMMENCEMENT
      The amendments to the Crimes Act 1900 commence on the date of assent to this Act.
      EXPLANATORY NOTE
      Powers of a prescribed person under section 474G. Item (1) of the proposed amendments puts beyond doubt that the instrument of appointment referred to in that section refers to the instrument of appointment by which a prescribed person is appointed to conduct an inquiry under Division 4 of Part 13A of the Act.
      Extension of powers of a prescribed person under section 475. The savings and transitional provisions in the Eleventh Schedule to the Act provide for inquiries under (the now repealed) section 475 to be concluded under that section. Item (2) of the proposed amendments gives a prescribed person who is conducting such an inquiry the powers, authorities, protections and immunities of a commissioner under the Royal Commissions Act 1923 and applies that Act to witnesses at such an inquiry.

The proposed amendments, similar to those made to previous bills of this kind, are not controversial. As I indicated in my second reading speech, the Government is proposing a single amendment to the bill in order to accommodate a minor amendment which has arisen from the current inquiry being conducted by Mr Slattery, Q.C., into the conviction of Mr Kalajzich. Because Mr Slattery was appointed to conduct the inquiry before the Crimes (Review of Convictions) Amendment Act 1993 came into force last Sunday, it was not possible to give him the powers that would be available to him under the Government legislation. This amendment makes clear that Mr Slattery will have appropriate powers for this inquiry. At the time the Government passed that Act it made clear that it was intended the inquiry should be conducted so as to achieve the intended purposes of the proposed legislation. But in the last 48 hours it has become apparent that because of an oversight in the transitional provisions Mr Slattery will not have all the powers of the Act appropriate to be able to complete the Kalajzich inquiry effectively. This further amendment is sought to ensure that can be achieved.

The Hon. B. H. VAUGHAN (Deputy Leader of the Opposition) [8.50]: Could the Attorney General give the House some detail about those transitional arrangements?

The Hon. J. P. HANNAFORD (Attorney General, Minister for Justice, and Vice President of the Executive Council) [8.51]: In the Crimes Legislation (Review of Convictions) Amendment Bill which came into effect on Monday, the transitional provisions provided in effect for this legislation to apply to all enquiries, whether they were commenced before or after the date of proclamation. It was found that because Mr Slattery was appointed before the legislation came into effect he would not have the full powers of a royal commissioner to call witnesses, as will be given to commissioners appointed after the proclamation date. Because Mr Slattery was appointed prior to the bill being enacted, he will not be able to require witnesses to attend and give evidence. Clearly that is an oversight in relation to the legislation. It was intended that the commissioner should have all of the necessary powers to properly conduct an inquiry. That certainly was the intention when the Government introduced this legislation. In the drafting it was not anticipated that Mr Slattery would be deprived of his powers. The Government is now correcting that oversight.

The Hon. J. R. Johnson: I will bet that Jack Slattery found that oversight.

The Hon. J. P. HANNAFORD: He did.

Amendment agreed to.

Schedule as amended agreed to.

Bill reported from Committee with amendment, and report adopted.





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