Laurie Ferguson (Reid, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Multicultural Affairs and Settlement Services) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the members for their contribution to the debate on the Statute Law Revision Bill 2009. I am encouraged to see that the tradition of bipartisan support for these bills continues. This government is proud to continue its support of statute law revision bills. This is the second such bill we have introduced during our term in government, reflecting the importance we place on updating Commonwealth legislation and improving its quality and accessibility.

While this bill does not change the substance of the law, it is an important responsibility of any government to carry out the passage of statute law revision bills. Minor drafting and clerical errors are bound to find their way into legislation, given the volume of bills passing through the parliament. The regular review of legislation by the Office of Parliamentary Counsel enables the prompt correction of these errors. These bills also remove from the statute book expired laws.

This is in line with the government’s recently adopted strategic framework for access to justice, which arose out of a report by my department’s Access to Justice Taskforce. One of the five justice principles contained in the framework is accessibility: justice initiatives should reduce the net complexity of the justice system. The removal of errors and obsolete legislation through the Statute Law Revision Bill is one means by which parliament can improve the accessibility of the law consistent with that strategic framework. These amendments also ensure that our laws reflect contemporary social standards by amending statutes containing gender-specific language to produce a statute book that is gender neutral and more inclusive.

These bills are prepared on the initiative of the Office of Parliamentary Counsel. I commend the office for the quality of its work in ensuring that our statute book remains as accurate and effective as it can possibly be.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Ordered that the bill be reported to the House without amendment.

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