Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister Assisting the Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Hansard source

The Law Officers Legislation Amendment Bill 2008 is one of the most uncontroversial bills the House will ever deal with. It is my duty, on behalf of the shadow Attorney-General, to speak on this bill, which amends the Long Service Leave (Commonwealth Employees) Act 1976 and the Law Officers Act 1964 to provide holders of the office of the Solicitor-General with an entitlement to long service leave. It will be unsurprising to the House to find that this bill is being dealt with with some lack of controversy—and, in fact, I am surprised that it is not being dealt with in the Main Committee. Nevertheless, I am pleased to say that the opposition is happy to support the bill.

Historically, long service leave for the Solicitor-General was expressly provided for in the Law Officers Act and, to avoid conflict, the office is excluded from the operation of the long service leave act. Amendments to the Law Officers Act in 1998 altered the Solicitor-General’s terms and conditions of service to bring them into line with those of senior members of the Australian Public Service but did not make consequential amendments to the long service leave act. This bill seeks to clarify that holders of the office of the Solicitor-General appointed after 31 December 1997 are entitled to long service leave. The opposition supports the bill.

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