BILLS DIGEST NO. 57, 2015–16              25 November 2015

Amending Acts 1990 to 1999 Repeal Bill 2015

Claire Petrie
Law and Bills Digest Section 

Date introduced: 12 November 2015

House:  House of Representatives

Portfolio: Attorney-General

Commencement: Sections 1 to 3 commence on Royal Assent. Schedule 1 commences on the 28th day after Royal Assent.

Links: The links to the Bill, its Explanatory Memorandum and second reading speech can be found on the Bill’s home page, or through the Australian Parliament website.

When Bills have been passed and have received Royal Assent, they become Acts, which can be found at the ComLaw website.

Purpose of the Bill

The purpose of the Amending Acts 1990 to 1999 Repeal Bill 2015 (the Bill) is to repeal 877 amending or repealing Acts identified as redundant.[1]

Background

The Bill was introduced as part of the Government’s 2015 Spring Repeal Day package, alongside the Omnibus Repeal Day (Spring 2015) Bill 2015 and Statute Law Revision Bill (No. 3) 2015.[2] Collectively the Bills form part of an ongoing effort to repeal obsolete legislation and clean up the Commonwealth’s statue book.[3] The Assistant Minister for Productivity, Peter Hendy stated in his second reading speech that:

At present, the Acts proposed to be repealed by this Bill are part of current law. Examined out of context, it may not be clear whether they have continuing effect beyond the amendments that they made.

Their repeal will make the statute book easier and more efficient to use.[4]

There have been three previous ‘amending Acts’ repeal Bills which repealed amending legislation enacted between 1901 and 1989.[5] As with the earlier Bills, the current Bill repeals a series of Acts which amended or repealed principal legislation and which, having made such amendments, have no further operative effect. The Bill repeals only ‘spent’ legislation, and therefore it makes no changes to the substance of the law.[6] As noted by the Bills Digests to the earlier Bills, such Bills effectively function in the same way as a statute law revision or statute stocktake Bill; a typically non-controversial tool used by all governments to cut ‘dead wood’ from the statute book.[7]

Committee consideration

Senate Standing Committee for Selection of Bills

At the time of writing, the Senate Standing Committee for the Selection of Bills has not considered the Bill. The earlier Bills were not referred to a committee.

Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills

The Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills has not commented on the Bill at the time of writing. The Committee did not make any comment on the earlier Bills.

Financial implications

According to the Explanatory Memorandum the Bill has no financial implications.[8]

Statement of Compatibility with Human Rights

As required under Part 3 of the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011 (Cth), the Government has assessed the Bill’s compatibility with the human rights and freedoms recognised or declared in the international instruments listed in section 3 of that Act. The Government considers that the Bill is compatible.[9]

The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights found that the Bill raises no human rights concerns.[10]

Key issues and provisions

As explained in the Bills Digests to earlier ‘amending Acts’ repeal Bills, although some Australian jurisdictions including the ACT[11], Queensland[12] and Victoria[13] have arrangements for the automatic repeal of amending Acts, the Commonwealth does not:

The Commonwealth has automated the process of repealing or sunsetting legislative instruments (the Legislative Instruments Act 2003, Part 5A (Repeal of spent legislative instruments and provisions) and Part 6 (Sunsetting of legislative instruments)) but has yet to automate the process of removing spent amending Acts, hence the need for this Bill to remove legislation that has served its purpose and no longer has any legislative effect.[14]

The Acts and Instruments (Framework Reform) Act 2015 (Cth), the relevant provisions of which commence in March 2016, amends the Legislative Instruments Act 2003 (Cth)[15] to extend the process of automatic repeal to notifiable instruments or provisions which amend or repeal another instrument.[16] It does not change the process for the repeal of amending Acts. Schedule 1 repeals 877 obsolete or redundant amending or repeal Acts enacted between 1990 and 1999. The Acts will remain publicly accessible through historical databases on ComLaw and other legal sites.[17]

Subclause 3(2) provides that if an Act listed in Schedule 1 includes any application, saving or transitional provision, any ongoing operation of the provision is preserved.

Section 7 of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901 (Cth) provides that repealing an Act that repealed another Act (the original Act) does not revive anything that was in force in the original Act prior to the commencement of the repealing Act.[18]

Time and resource constraints prevent an examination of all of the Acts listed in Schedule 1 to determine whether their repeal would make a substantive change to the law. However, a number of Acts were randomly selected and examined.[19] For all of these, the amendments they made have taken effect and in many cases have themselves been amended or repealed by subsequent legislation. The selected Acts do not contain any provisions which are not spent or redundant. As such, while it is not possible to make a definitive conclusion, on the basis of the Acts examined it does not appear as though the repeal of the Acts listed in Schedule 1 will make any substantive changes to the law.

Concluding comments

The Bill is one of a number of routine measures by which the Government ensures the statute book is kept up-to-date and in good order. The process of legislative ‘housekeeping’ is undertaken on an ongoing basis by all governments, and as such, the Bill is unlikely to be controversial. 

Members, Senators and Parliamentary staff can obtain further information from the Parliamentary Library on (02) 6277 2500.

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[1].              P Hendy, ‘Second reading speech: Amending Acts 1990 to 1999 Repeal Bill 2015’, House of Representatives, Debates, (proof), 12 November 2015, p. 10; Explanatory Memorandum, Amending Acts 1990 to 1999 Repeal Bill 2015, p. 2, both accessed 16 November 2015.

[2].              Parliament of Australia, ‘Omnibus Repeal Day (Spring 2015) Bill 2015 homepage’, Australian Parliament website; Parliament of Australia, ‘Statute Law Revision Bill (No. 3) 2015 homepage’, Australian Parliament website, both accessed 17 November 2015

[3].              P Hendy, ‘Second reading speech: Omnibus Repeal Day (Spring 2015) Bill 2015’, House of Representatives, Debates, 12 November 2015, (proof), p. 8, accessed 18 November 2015.

[4].              P Hendy, ‘Second reading speech: Amending Acts 1990 to 1999 Repeal Bill 2015’, op. cit.

[5].              Parliament of Australia, ‘Amending Acts 1901 to 1969 Repeal Bill 2014 homepage’, Australian Parliament website; J Murphy, Amending Acts 1901 to 1969 Repeal Bill 2014, Bills digest, 59, 2013–14, Parliamentary Library, Canberra, 2014;
Parliament of Australia, ‘Amending Acts 1970 to 1979 Repeal Bill 2014 homepage’, Australian Parliament website; K Magarey, Amending Acts 1970 to 1979 Repeal Bill 2014, Bills digest, 57, 2014–15, Parliamentary Library, Canberra, 2014;
Parliament of Australia, ‘Amending Acts 1980 to 1989 Repeal Bill 2015 homepage’, Australian Parliament website; K Magarey, Amending Acts 1980 to 1989 Repeal Bill 2015, Bills digest, 103, 2014–15, Parliamentary Library, Canberra, all accessed 18 November 2015.

[6].              Explanatory Memorandum, op. cit., pp. 2, 4.

[7].              J Murphy, Amending Acts 1901 to 1969 Repeal Bill 2014, op. cit., p. 2.

[8].              Explanatory Memorandum, op. cit., p. 2.

[9].              The Statement of Compatibility with Human Rights can be found at page 3 of the Explanatory Memorandum to the Bill.

[10].              Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, Thirty-first report of the 44th Parliament, 24 November 2015, p. 1, accessed 24 November 2015.

[11].              Legislation Act 2001 (ACT), section 89, accessed 18 November 2015.

[12].              Acts Interpretation Act 1954 (Qld), section 22C, accessed 18 November 2015.

[13].              K Magarey, Amending Acts 1980 to 1989 Repeal Bill 2015, op. cit., p. 3. Since 2007, Victoria includes in all amending Acts a provision (generally the last provision) which repeals the amending Act after a fixed period of time.

[14].              Ibid.

[15].              The Legislative Instruments Act 2003 (Cth) will become the Legislation Act 2003 (Cth): Acts and Instruments (Framework Reform) Act 2015 (Cth), Schedule 1, clause 3, accessed 24 November 2015.

[16].              Ibid., Schedule 1, clause 52.

[17].              Explanatory Memorandum, op. cit., p. 2.

[18].              Acts Interpretation Act 1901 (Cth), section 7, accessed 19 November 2015.

[19].              The Acts examined were: Civil Aviation Amendment Act 1990 (Cth); Sex Discrimination Amendment Act 1991 (Cth); Therapeutic Goods (Charges) Amendment Act 1993 (Cth); Crimes Amendment Act 1995 (Cth); Australian Federal Police Amendment Act 1996 (Cth); Corporations Law Amendment Act 1997 (Cth); Flags Amendment Act 1998 (Cth); States Grants (Primary and Secondary Education Assistance) Amendment Act 1998 (Cth); Protection of Movable Cultural Heritage Amendment Act 1999 (Cth); National Crime Authority Amendment Act 1999 (Cth), all accessed 19 November 2015.