Ewen Jones (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on behalf of Mr Keenan, the member for Stirling, on the Acts Interpretation Amendment Bill 2011, which amends the Acts Interpretation Act 1901. The Acts Interpretation Act is an important Commonwealth act that provides general guidance and rules for interpreting all Commonwealth legislation. The bill's explanatory memorandum includes a quote from Australia's first Attorney-General, Alfred Deakin, who said on the second reading of the Acts Interpretation Bill on 6 June 1901, the act:

… is a measure providing for the simplification of the language of Acts of Parliament and the shortening of their terminology. It constitutes in a sense a legal dictionary, particular meanings being assigned by it to particular phrases, which must be used over and over again in almost every Act of Parliament.

The coalition supports the passage of this bill, which aims to modernise the Acts Interpretation Act 1901 by: co-locating the definitions currently scattered throughout the act; placing the act's provisions in a more logical order; providing that an action by a minister other than the minister who is authorised to perform that action is not invalid merely on that basis; inserting a new section to confirm, for the avoidance of doubt, that the common law de facto officer doctrine applies, which will ensure that if an officer has been invalidly appointed, acts performed by the officer in that position are not automatically invalidated, a doctrine that was affirmed by the High Court in Cassell v The Queen (2000); specifying that everything in an act as enacted by the parliament should be considered part of an act; allowing meeting participants to be in different locations and to participate using technology such as video conferencing; and adjusting the definition of 'document' to include things like maps, plans, drawings and photographs.

In 1993 the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs published a report on the drafting of Commonwealth legislation titled Clearer Commonwealth law. One of the committee's recommendations was that the Attorney-General's Department and the Office of Parliamentary Counsel should publicly review and rewrite the Acts Interpretation Act. In response, the Attorney-General's Department and the Office of Parliamentary Counsel jointly issued a discussion paper entitled Review of the Commonwealth Acts Interpretation Act 1901 in 1998. Following consultation on the discussion paper, a number of recommendations were made to improve the useability and readability of the Acts Interpretation Act. The member for Sterling would gladly tell you that this Bill is the result of that process and I commend the bill to the House.

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