BILLS DIGEST NO. 58, 2015–16              25 November 2015

Statute Law Revision Bill (No. 3) 2015

Moira Coombs
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 and Schedules 4 to 6 commence on the 28th day after Royal Assent. Schedules 2 and 3 commence after certain provisions of other Acts have commenced.

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 Statute Law Revision Bill (No. 3) 2015 (the Bill) is to make minor amendments and to correct various errors occurring in statutes.

The Bill amends:

•       errors in 17 principal Acts, removing redundant text and renumbering certain provisions (Schedule 1)

•       corrects misdescribed amendments in two amending Acts (Schedule 2)

•       updates provisions in relation to binding the Crown in one principal Act (Schedule 3)

•       modernises expressions used in relation to a person who commits an offence to accord with current Commonwealth drafting practice in 140 principal Acts in Part 1 and 52 principal Acts in Part 2 (Schedule 4)

•       updates the term ‘reference base’ to ‘index reference period’ used in relation to statistical indices to accord with preferred terminology of the Australian Bureau of Statistics in eight principal Acts (Schedule 5) and

•       repeals spent and obsolete provisions in five principal Acts (Schedule 6).

Background

The Assistant Minister for Productivity, Dr Hendy noted in his second reading speech that the Bill is part of the Government’s 2015 Spring Repeal Day package, which contributes to its ongoing efforts to repeal spent or redundant legislation and to correct minor errors in Commonwealth laws.[1] Statute law revision legislation has been a feature of the legislative landscape since 1934 when the first Statute Law Revision Act 1934 was passed. The Attorney-General at that time, John Latham, noted in his second reading speech that:

There is an obligation resting upon the Government of the Commonwealth, and upon this Parliament, to present the statute law of the Commonwealth in a convenient, accessible and readily intelligible form. We try to do that as the legislation is drafted, and as it is passed through Parliament from time to time; but as the years go by it becomes evident that there is a great deal of obsolete matter on the statute-book. The object of this Bill is merely to cut away the dead wood on the statute-book.[2]

Cutting away the dead wood is an ongoing process of keeping the statute books accurate and up to date. Statute Law Revision Bills are traditionally non-controversial, and receive the support of the Parliament, as they are regarded as an essential tool in the process of keeping orderly, accurate and up-to-date Commonwealth statute books.[3] As the Attorney-General commented in his second reading for the 2010 Statute Law Revision Bill:

This continual process of statutory review complements the government’s commitment to creating clearer Commonwealth laws. This connection was aptly put in a media article which referred to the previous Statute Law Revision Bill as ‘hoovering up statutory detritus’. There is no doubt that the review process undertaken in the preparation of this Bill serves to ensure the statute book contains less clutter, in the form of outdated cross-references, by repealing obsolete acts.[4]

The Attorney-General further noted:

The Bills do not make substantive changes to law but still perform the important function of repairing minor errors in the Commonwealth statute books and improving the accuracy and usability of consolidated versions of Commonwealth acts.[5]

Committee consideration

Senate Standing for the Selection of Bills

At its meeting on 11 November 2015, the Committee deferred consideration of the Bill to its next meeting.[6]

Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills

To date, the Senate Standing Committee for the Scrutiny of Bills has not made any comment on the Bill.

Policy position of non-government parties/independents

It would appear that there has been no comment on the Bill by non-government parties or independents to date.

Financial implications

The Explanatory Memorandum notes that the Bill will have no financial impact.[7]

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.[8]

Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights

The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights has not made any comment on the Bill to date.

Key issues and provisions

Schedule 1—Amendments of principal Acts

Schedule 1, items 1 to 27 make minor amendments to 17 principal Acts to correct various errors occurring in the text of the legislation concerned. The amendments:

•       correct misnumbered provisions

•       correct typographical errors

•       correct cross-references

•       remove redundant definitions and text

•       correct references to Acts and

•       fix grammatical errors.

Schedule 2—Amendments of amending Acts

Items 1 to 3 of Schedule 2 correct misdescribed amendments in two amending Acts. The corrections will have a retrospective commencement date.

Items 1 and 2 correct item 1 of Schedule 8 in the Broadcasting and Other Legislation Amendment (Deregulation) Act 2015 and commence immediately after item 1 of Schedule 8 of that Act commenced, which was 20 March 2015.[9]

Item 3 of Schedule 2 corrects a misdescribed amendment in Schedule 1 of the Primary Industries Levies and Charges Collection (Consequential Provisions) Act 1991 and will be taken to have commenced as of 1 July 1991.

Schedule 3—Binding the Crown

Currently section 8 of the Child Support (Registration and Collection) Act 1988 provides that the Act binds the Crown in right of the Commonwealth, all the States, the Northern Territory and Norfolk Island and that nothing in the Act renders the Crown liable to prosecution for an offence.[10] The Australian Capital Territory is not mentioned as the provision came into force prior to ACT self-government. Item 1 of Schedule 3 repeals section 8 and substitutes proposed section 8. The updated provision states that the Act binds the Crown in each of its capacities. As a result, the Commonwealth, states, the Northern Territory and the ACT will be bound.[11] Proposed section 8 also provides that the Act does not make the Crown liable to be prosecuted for an offence. Schedule 3 commences on the day after the Bill receives Royal Assent or immediately after Part 1 of Schedule 2 of the Norfolk Island Legislation Amendment Act 2015 commences, whichever is the later. The Norfolk Island Legislation Amendment Act 2015 (which is relevant here because it also contains amendments to section 8 of the Child Support (Registration and Collection) Act) will commence on 1 July 2016.[12]

Schedule 4—Guilty of an offence

Part 1 amends 140 principal Acts. According to the Explanatory Memorandum, current drafting practice now recommends the use of the expression ‘a person commits an offence’ rather than ‘a person is guilty of an offence’. This acknowledges, as the Explanatory Memorandum notes, that it is the role of the court to find persons guilty of an offence, as stated by Justice Deane in Polyukhovich v Commonwealth:

… the whole focus of a criminal trial is the ascertainment of whether it is established that the accused in fact committed a past act which constituted a criminal contravention of the requirements of a valid law which was applicable to the act at the time the act was done. It is the determination of that question which lies at the heart of the exclusively judicial function of the adjudgment of criminal guilt.[13]

Part 1, items 1 to 328 omit the term ‘is guilty of’ and substitutes the term ‘commits’ in various offence provisions.

Part 2, items 329 to 439 amends 52 principal Acts. Part 2 involves amendments to offence provisions that contain variants on the wording seen in the provisions in Part 1, such as ‘are each guilty of’, ‘shall be guilty of’ or ‘is not guilty of’. As with Part 1, these offence provisions are updated to replace ‘guilty of’ with ‘commits’ or ‘is not guilty of’ with ‘does not commit’.

Schedule 5—Indexation provisions

Schedule 5 deals with indexation provisions in various Acts, such as the Child Support (Registration and Collection) Act 1988, the Social Security Act 1991 and the Veterans’ Entitlements Act 1986. These provisions set out methods that are used to adjust various monetary amounts to reflect the impact of inflation. Items 1 to 6, 8, 10 and 12 change the term ‘reference base’ where it occurs to ‘index reference period’. This is the preferred term of the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The Explanatory Memorandum notes that the changes do not change the legal effect of the provisions concerned.[14] Items 7, 9 and 11 substitute existing section headings to reflect the changed terminology.

Schedule 6—Repeals of spent and obsolete provisions

Schedule 6 amends five principal Acts by repealing spent or obsolete provisions. Items 1 to 3 and 6 repeal provisions that required reviews to be carried out at prescribed times and the reports of those reviews to be tabled in Parliament. The relevant reviews and reports have been completed and tabled, thereby making those provisions redundant.

Items 4 and 5 refer to section 12A and Schedule 1 of the Social Security (International Agreements) Act 1999, which are now redundant.[15] The provisions were intended to preserve the effect of the Agreement between Australia and the United Kingdom for people arriving in Australia prior to 1 March 2001 when the Agreement terminated. It enabled people to qualify for specified social security payments under the Social Security Act 1991. The people concerned would by now have qualified under domestic legislation, according to the Explanatory Memorandum.[16]

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: Statute Law Revision Bill (No. 3) 2015,’ House of Representatives, Debates, (proof), 12 November 2015, p. 10, accessed 24 November 2015.

[2].               J Latham, ‘Second reading speech: Statute Law Revision Bill 1934’, House of Representatives, Debates, 2 August 1934, pp. 1073–76, accessed 24 November 2015.

[3].              D Spooner, Statute Law Revision Bill (No. 2) 2010, Bills digest, 60, 2010-11, Parliamentary Library, Canberra, 2011, p. 2, accessed 24 November 2015.

[4].              R McClelland, ‘Second reading speech: Statute Law Revision Bill (No.2) 2010’, House of Representatives, Debates, 24 November 2010, p. 3549, accessed 24 November 2015.

[5].              Ibid.

[6].               Senate Standing Committee on the Selection of Bills, Report, 14, 2015, The Senate, 12 November 2015, accessed 19 November 2015.             

[7].              Explanatory Memorandum, Statute Law Revision Bill (No. 3) 2015, p. 2, accessed 24 November 2015.

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

[9].              Broadcasting and Other Legislation Amendment (Deregulation) Act 2015, accessed 24 November 2015.

[10].              Child Support (Registration and Collection) Act 1988, accessed 24 November 2015.

[11].              The ‘crown in the right of Norfolk Island [will] cease to be an operative concept’ once the governance changes to Norfolk Island, contained in the Norfolk Island Legislation Amendment Act 2015 and related legislation are complete. See Explanatory Memorandum, Norfolk Island Legislation Amendment Bill 2015, p. 39, accessed 25 November 2015.

[12].              Norfolk Island Legislation Amendment Act 2015, accessed 24 November 2015. See section 2 for commencement details and items 85 and 86 of Schedule 2 for amendments to section 8 of the Child Support (Registration and Collection) Act 1988.

[13].              Polyukhovich v Commonwealth (“War Crimes Act case”) (1991) 172 CLR 501, [1991] HCA 32, per Deane J at [27].

[14].              Explanatory Memorandum, op. cit., p. 11.

[15].              Social Security (International Agreements) Act 1999, accessed 24 November 2015.

[16].              Explanatory Memorandum, op. cit., p. 12.